Hirundines and Cranes

Church Farm at Threxton lies within rolling farmland in the Watton brook valley, farming here comprises both arable and grazing livestock.  A visit to this locality early morning produced a flock of 300+ House Martins with smaller numbers of Swallows gathering above Church Farm and the nearby sewage works.  As with recent observations, this gathering of Hirundines probably comprised mostly migrants using the site as a staging post as well as some local birds.

At 1120 whilst checking the skies from my garden in Watton I noticed 2 very distant specks very high to the north-west.  Intially, I thought they were aircraft but it became apparent they were indeed birds, as I continued to watch these birds it was clear they were very large, these were Common Cranes, a species I have encountered rarely in the Breckland area.

2 Common Cranes Watton, Norfolk 18/09/13 (Very distant and very high)

A small population of Common Cranes breeds in the Norfolk Broads and at Lakenheath Fen on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.  The question is are these birds from either of these populations on a wander around Norfolk or are they passage birds from Europe.  I have seen Common Cranes on my patch on two previous occasions, both of these previous sighting were of birds flying quite low, given that these Cranes today were at a great height could they have been migrants from Europe?

                                                    Water Vole (One of 2) at Little Cressingham.
A late afternoon visit to Little Cressingham Mill was fairly quiet birdwsie, however, 2 Water Voles were great to see considering their scarcity.