The first eight crane chicks destined to be released into the wild later this year as part of the Great Crane Project have successfully hatched at WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, just a few short hours after an epic 17 hour road trip from Germany.

The team, led by WWT’s Head of Conservation Breeding Nigel Jarrett, knew the timing was crucial to bring the eggs back from Germany before they hatched – but they did not know quite how vital this would turn out to be.

Travel crisis disrupts plans

Original plans to fly the eggs back on Friday courtesy of Airbus and Lufthansa were shelved in the wake of last weeks’ air travel crisis. But, determined to stick to the schedule, Nigel and crane ‘dad’ Roland Digby took turns at the wheel on an epic 17 hour road trip with the 18 carefully collected crane eggs in portable incubators, arriving back at WWT Slimbridge late on Friday night.

Only hours after arriving the first chick hatched, followed by seven more, to the surprise and delight of Nigel and crane ‘mum’ Amy King who had been anxiously awaiting their arrival at WWT Slimbridge’s brand new rearing facility – Crane School 2010.

Cutting it fine

Nigel said: “We knew we would be cutting it fine, but we didn’t know quite how close it was! It really was a privilege to bring back such an iconic bird to Britain, they are back where they belong almost like a long-lost friend. This is the start of a new generation of British birds and I can’t wait to see these newly hatched cranes gracing our skies this autumn.”

The next few days should see more chicks hatch at WWT Slimbridge, with a second batch of eggs arriving at Crane School later this week by air, courtesy of Airbus and Lufthansa. Then over the next couple of months Roland and Amy will go on to teach their brood of crane chicks how to forage for food, swim, socialize and protect themselves from predators – all valuable lessons to help them prepare for life in the wild.

Release into the wild

The cranes will be transferred to a temporary release enclosure on the Somerset Levels and Moors later this summer before they are released into the wild as part of the Great Crane Project – a partnership between WWT, RSPB and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, with major funding from Viridor Credits Environmental Company.

Read WWT’s Crane School 2010 blog with details on the egg collection in Germany, Nigel and Roland’s frantic road trip back, plus up to the minute news on the latest hatches at Slimbridge.
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Plans to bring back the eggs of wild cranes for a project to re-introduce the birds to Somerset have been hit by the air travel ban.

The eggs are being collected in Germany as part of the Great Crane Project run jointly by RSPB, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, with major funding from Viridor Credits Environmental Company. The original plan was to work with German conservationists to collect the eggs then bring them back courtesy of Airbus and Lufthansa to WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. Here they are to be hatched and raised in Crane School before being released on the Somerset Levels and Moors later this year.

Members of the Great Crane Project team set off as planned on Saturday with a truck and all the specialist equipment required. The plan then was for WWT’s top aviculturalist, Nigel Jarrett, to hop on a plan first thing this morning and meet the rest of the team in Germany later today. But after a weekend of watching and waiting for news that the air travel ban was lifting, undaunted, Nigel instead hopped into a hire car and set off on the 14 hour drive alone before dawn broke this morning, anxious to be in Germany in time to collect the eggs on schedule.

Nigel and the team are booked onto a Lufthansa flight on Friday to bring their special cargo of eggs back to Slimbridge, but with the continued uncertainty over air travel, it is quite likely the team will return by road and sea instead. However, it is hoped that planned second and third egg collection trips between Slimbridge and Germany later this month will continue as planned courtesy of Airbus and Lufthansa.

Great Crane Project Manager Damon Bridge: “This is quite a complex operation, so we’ve had to do some quick thinking to work out a way of getting the eggs back on time and ready for hatching early next week. So, instead of flying them back they’ll now set off on a rather epic road journey across Europe, then by boat to the UK and eventually Slimbridge. Fortunately our aviculturalists from WWT have had plenty of experience of doing this sort of thing before so, although air travel was our preferred option, the birds will be just fine on their road trip, safely held in incubators for the journey through Germany and France.” The Great Crane Project team will do the journey back to the UK non-stop, taking turns driving, so that the birds get back to Gloucestershire in time to hatch in the newly built crane rearing area. It is expected the first will hatch towards the end of the month. From there they will be raised by specially employed aviculturalists before a final journey down to Somerset.

Damon added:”I can’t wait to see the first youngsters hatch, it’s taken us many years to get to this stage and it’ll be such a great moment.”

Whooper swan Y6K, which is being tracked using satellite technology, seems to have flown into difficulty on its return migration to Iceland. It was last recorded at 10.46 this morning (Friday) heading towards the cloud of ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

WWT researchers noticed the bird’s position on the online tracking map www.wwt.org.uk/whooper. Y6K is approaching Iceland from the south east, which is one of the main landfall areas for swans arriving in the country, but this is very much in line with the fallout from the volcano. The satellite transmitter attached to the bird is due to give a further reading in two days time, so it will be an anxious weekend for researchers and enthusiasts those following its progress online.

Migration to Iceland
Given that this is the main goose migration period, there is also concern for the welfare of greylag geese, pink-footed geese, light-bellied brent geese, Greenland white-fronted geese and Greenland barnacle geese migrating to or through Iceland at this time.

On Iceland itself, the volcanic eruption is causing concern for the returning waterfowl. A report from WWT’s colleague Dr Olafur Einarsson in Reykjavik confirms that that there is dense ash and total darkness to the southeast of the volcano, near the area dubbed “Whooper Airport” because it is where most of the birds land after their migration.

Previous eruptions
Dr Einarsson reports that bird deaths have occurred during previous eruptions of other volcanoes in Iceland, when the feeding areas were covered with ash, causing major problems for farmers and birds. Fortunately at the moment the main area affected, between Vik (in the west) and Kirkjubaejarklaustur (in the east), is primarily an area of sand and gravel, leaving internationally important whooper swan staging or breeding sites still suitable for swans.

Y6K is being tracked as part of WWT’s ongoing conservation work with whooper swans. The project aims to determine the migration routes that the swans take, the heights and speeds at which they fly, and the effects of weather conditions on their flight patterns, and is being carried out in collaboration with COWRIE (Collaborative Offshore Wind Research into the Environment) and DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change).

The Mileage Company, operators of Airmiles, the UK’s leading travel rewards scheme, has announced its new partnership with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), the leading conservation organisation saving wetlands for wildlife and people across the world.

Through its Airmiles travel rewards scheme, The Mileage Company is donating over £40,000 to support environmental projects such as saving the Madagascar pochard, the world’s rarest duck from extinction and other conservation breeding programmes undertaken by WWT.

The Mileage Company donation to WWT is the result of two of Airmiles’ environmentally friendly customer initiatives; where members send in their old mobile ‘phones which are reconditioned and reused in developing countries, instead of ending up in landfill, and shopping via Airmiles Eco Shop for sustainable products like eco-kettles and organic beauty products. For both these initiatives Airmiles members collect miles and the profits are donated to two partner charities, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and Rainforest Concern.

Andrew Swaffield, Managing Director, The Mileage Company, operators of Airmiles, said: “We take our responsibility for the environment very seriously. Airmiles customers tell us they love travel but would like help in reducing their carbon footprint along the way. Our mobile ‘phone recycling and Eco Shop initiatives mean that Airmiles customers can make a significant contribution to environmental projects. And we’re delighted to donate profits from these initiatives to the vital conservation work by Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and Rainforest Concern.”

John Creedon, Corporate Relations Manager, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, said: “We are very pleased to receive such a generous donation from the Airmiles scheme, towards our conservation and education work. It’s really exciting to receive this boost to our funds, particularly in this, the International Year of Biodiversity.”

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on earth and the value of biodiversity in our lives. To find out more about Airmiles commitment to the environment visit the World in Mind area on the web site www.airmiles.co.uk/worldinmind.
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Barnacle geese heading to Svalbard for the summer have been tagged with satellite trackers to find out more about their migration. WWT has fitted five birds with the electronic backpacks which will provide data to help steer the locations of windfarm turbines off the UK coast.

WWT supports the expansion of renewable energy to meet government targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sees wind energy as an important component of this. Where there are potential risks to wetland species, such as migrating birds, WWT works to provide the best data on risks and identify solutions so that birds and windfarms can coexist.

Barnacle goose recovery
The Svalbard barnacle goose, which overwinters in the Solway Firth, numbered just 300 by the 1940s but the population has recovered to some 30,000 today. A ban on hunting the birds and conservation efforts by WWT and colleagues in the UK and Norway were instrumental in their recovery.

New challenges
But in our changing world new challenges crop up all the time. WWT is ensuring that the best information is available on the birds’ migration routes and heights relative to areas of planned offshore wind farm development in the Firth of Forth and elsewhere. Dr Larry Griffin, WWT principal research officer, has tagged 25 geese in the past with GPS tags and tracked their spring migrations over four years.

The bird’s main flight corridor seems to take them through sites earmarked for new turbines as part of the UK’s planned expansion in offshore wind power. The concern in this particular case is that the geese arrive in the area in the hours of darkness and are flying through in low light or resting on the sea for a few hours. WWT is waiting to see this data on what exactly the geese do in the area before making any judgements.

Getting the best information
Dr Griffin therefore has tagged a further five adult male geese, thanks to funding from the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Sustainable Development Fund, this year on their wintering grounds at WWT’s Caerlaverock Wetland Centre on the Solway Firth before they head off this month to the High Arctic Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. He is hoping to fill in gaps in his data to find out the altitude the birds are flying at and whether they spend time resting on the sea.

This involves using improved solar-powered GPS which may store enough battery power to track the geese at night. By tracking the birds online during their migration, he also hopes to see how they cope with existing wind farms they encounter on the Norwegian coast.

“If they are flying through there in the darkness or in sea fog conditions, my concern is that the potential for collision could be increased,” he said.

“It may well be that they spot these things easily and use them as a navigational marker, but the time of day at which they are going through that area concerns me, especially as they have quite a narrow route.”

The data gathered from the barnacle geese could be used to help steer where turbines installed under “Round 3″ of the Crown Estate licensing process for new wind farms in UK waters are placed. And for those farms potentially being developed in Scottish territorial waters, where the sites are more fixed, mitigation measures might be put in place.