News and useful information
Wryde Croft Wind Farm
Parish Council briefing 5th August 2014
Cranes again seen in Thorney
According to http://www.thegreatcraneproject.org.uk/ Cranes are thought to have gone extinct as a breeding bird in the UK around 400 years ago.
Wintering birds would have occasionally turned up in the intervening period – as they still currently do from time to time. These are birds that veer off from their usual migration routes across Europe – often as a result of inclement weather.
In 1979, three of these migrant birds spent the winter in the Norfolk Broads.
These three pioneering cranes liked what they found and stayed put, and the population slowly but steadily grew through immigration of more young birds and more recently through breeding and the production of young to add to the population.
The UK population is still centred in Norfolk, but birds have now also bred in Suffolk and on Humberside with the current population around 50 resident birds and the 3 photographed above were near Thorney Toll on 19 December 2013.
Unlike all other cranes on the continent, the UK birds are resident and do not migrate away from the UK for the winter.
USEFUL INFORMATION TO PREVENT FLOODING
Suggestion only - no personal knowledge of the products below..
"Sand-less Sandbags". These measure 36 x 60 cm (14" x 24") when empty and weighing only 450 grams making them easy to store, made from a standard hessian outer and a "Super Absorbent Polymer," they take only 5 - 6 minutes to inflate in fresh water, inflates to 15 - 18kg. Once they have been inflated they can used in the same way as traditional sandbags for flood prevention and protection.
Details can be found on the links below but there are other supplies. Do shop around!