cliftonbirding: Hull Valley Crane

Friday, 18 July 2014

Hull Valley Crane

I was out after work yesterday and went off to Arram Carrs by the river Hull to try for the long staying Common Crane, I knew I would need a bit of luck with this bird, the area is a bit off the beaten track and the bird is ranging widely on both sides of the river but it has been favouring Arram Carrs the last few days, I parked up in the little village of Aike, followed a track out towards the river then another track south along the Beverley Barmston Drain to view fields south of the village where a grid reference had suggested it may be, I found a field with a few Mute Swans in which had been mentioned a couple of times but there was no sign of the Crane there nor in any of the other suitable looking fields I could see, a couple of Buzzards were floating around though. I headed back for the village with the thought of dropping down to Arram itself and working north from there however as I reached the track that headed back to the village where I had headed south I noticed the other way led to the river bank which would give me a bit of height and I thought it would be worth giving it another scan from there, my luck was in, I didn’t even need to climb the bank the Crane was in a little field just that side of the riverbank and I sat and enjoyed the bird as it fed and preened for half an hour or more before it eventually flew off over the river. I then went off to nearby Wilfholme where I eventually found my way to the Hide at Watton NR that you can see from Tophill Low, a Peregrine flew over as I made my way there but it was fairly quiet at the reserve, a Green Sandpiper and a pair of Common Terns with chicks being the best of it, a good few Butterflies and Dragonflies were about that afternoon as well.