The very quiet past few days ended with a bang today. I was half way up to Lunch Wood, at Canons Farm when I got a text from Johnny Allan informing me of a Common Crane that had actually dropped onto the lake at Beddington! As I always do when I'm in the middle of patching and get such a message I felt a mixture of excitement, panic and disappointment. I rang Steve Gale who was in bed feeling under the weather but he couldn't afford to miss this bird; he picked me up from the Shell garage near Canons Farm within twenty minutes or so.
On arrival we were greeted by a relatively large crowd full of many familiar London/Surrey faces and some new ones. The 1st winter Common Crane showed well with Grey Herons at the opposite side of the lake all the time I was there; this was a bird I wasn't expecting to get back locally any time soon. A great London/Surrey/Beddington/local area tick and I haven't seen many in Britain before anyway! It appeared quite settled and started picking up and playing with those strange bits of meat that the Herons pick up from the bottom of the lake. A top bird; thanks to Frank for finding it, John for letting me know, Steve for getting me there and Phil for taking me back to Canons!
