Unusual sight wings its way into Strathspey
The strath has been visited by a very rare arrival despite its names.
A single common crane was spotted at Carr Road in Carrbridge and at the RSPB’s Abernethy Reserve before three were seen together at Loch Mallachie by Loch Garten.
The first bird was reported feeding in fields along the Carr Road in Carrbridge but vanished for a few days until a single crane, quite likely the same one, was reportedly seen briefly at a forest bog pool at the RSPB Abernethy Reserve last week.
Mr Richard Thaxton, RSPB Scotland site manager at Loch Garten, said bird experts were then gobsmacked when three cranes dropped in together at Loch Mallachie last Wednesday (May 29).
He said: "I was lucky enough to see these three and they looked so completely at home, feeding in the wetland sedge and reedbeds. Ever since I first came to the strath in 1982 and saw places like Loch Mallachie for the first time, I’ve always fantasised about seeing cranes there.
"It looks so perfect for them and so like the habitat they favour in places like Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Poland and Germany.
"Though called common crane, they are far from common here, their name harking back to the days when they were a much more familiar sight throughout much of the UK, until their extinction - they bred in East Anglia until about the early 1600s.
"Until last week, the last recent crane record for the strath was at RSPB Insh Marshes Reserve, back in April 2010, just a single bird. But to have a small party visit, albeit only three birds, makes you wonder, and dream, if they are casing the joint for future establishment here".
"Cranes are not just impressive birds on account of their size, standing as they do 120 centimetres high with a wingspan of 245 centimetres, but they are a beautiful and highly evocative species too.
"Their grace, the folklore that surrounds them, their monogamous life-long pairing, their dancing courtship display and their wonderful bugling calls, all make crane species the world over, a very popular draw, where seeing and hearing them is a very moving experience.
"This has lead to many examples of ‘crane tourism’ in places like Sweden, Spain and Japan."
In recent times cranes have gained a fragile, re-establishing toe-hold in parts of England, including Norfolk, Suffolk, Somerset and Yorkshire, and in Scotland they have been sighted in parts of Caithness and Aberdeenshire.
Mr Thaxton said: "To my mind, the area’s wetlands, forest bogs, flood plain fields of the rivers Spey and Dulnain could prove very attractive to cranes and I think it would be marvellous if ever they were to establish themselves here".
