Common cranes bugling

Common crane (Grus grus). Norfolk Broads, Somerset Levels, Severn, United Kingdom.

Best time: 1 Dec – 15 Mar (December to March). Where: Hickling Broad NWT – Stubb Mill viewpoint, West Sedgemoor / Aller Moor, Somerset Levels, WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire (United Kingdom). Time of day: Winter: the roost arrives from an hour before sunset to dusk and leaves in the half hour around sunrise.

• You can go on your own
• Entry fee
• Telescope recommended
• Sound 4/5

Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.

When is the best time?

Peak: 1 Dec – 15 Mar. Dec–Feb for roost gatherings; unison duets and dancing from late Feb to March

Active from 15 Oct to 30 Apr (October to April) in a typical year.

Time of day

Winter: the roost arrives from an hour before sunset to dusk and leaves in the half hour around sunrise. Spring duets from an hour before sunrise to about 2 h after.

• Roost arrival: 1 h before sunset → last light
• Dawn calls and duets: 45 min before sunrise → 2 h after sunrise

What will you hear?

Trumpeting bugles carrying over 2 km, unison calls from pairs, and the low rolling contact calls of a roosting group in the reeds.

Binoculars?

Telescope recommended. Stubb Mill and West Sedgemoor cranes are 300 m to 1 km off across the marsh; scope recommended, Slimbridge is close.

Where to go

• Hickling Broad NWT – Stubb Mill viewpoint — Winter roost of the Broads population; up to a few dozen birds plus marsh harriers. Viewpoint closes at dusk — record from the public track. Map
• West Sedgemoor / Aller Moor, Somerset Levels — Great Crane Project birds; public footpaths only, RSPB reserve has restricted access. Map
• WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire — The easiest place to see wild cranes at close range; centre hours only. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Somerset Levels: public footpaths and droves across West Sedgemoor, Aller Moor and the River Parrett banks are free at all hours — the RSPB West Sedgemoor reserve itself has restricted access. Hickling: the NWT reserve and Stubb Mill viewpoint are ticketed and close at dusk; the Weavers' Way public footpath past Stubb Mill is free. Slimbridge: paid WWT centre, daytime only.

Cost: Free on public footpaths; NWT Hickling Broad £5 adult non-members (£5.50 with Gift Aid), under-16s free (2026); WWT Slimbridge £17.91–£21.90 adult (2026).

Free or no-guide alternative: Walk the public droves on Aller Moor and the Parrett river bank at dawn or dusk in winter — the Great Crane Project birds roost and feed within earshot, free and open at all hours. At Hickling, the Weavers' Way footpath past Stubb Mill is free.

Field-recording notes

Schedule 1 breeder — never approach nesting areas in spring; the winter roost and spring duetting from a distance are the targets. Numbers are small (a few hundred birds in the UK), so this is about a clean, spacious recording rather than a mass. Broads reedbeds are quiet apart from occasional light aircraft and the Norwich–Sheringham line.

Sources

• The Wildlife Trusts – Where to see common crane
• WWT – Common crane

Similar spectacles

• Wintering cranes at ArjuzanxFrance · Wintering waterfowl · peak 15 Nov–15 FebWaves of cranes dropping into the flooded roost after dark, a continuous rolling chorus that carries for kilometres over the pine plantations.
• Wintering cranes in the Extremadura dehesaSpain · Wintering waterfowl · peak 20 Nov–10 FebTens of thousands of cranes flying into the roosts at sunset in wave after wave, bugling in the acorn dehesa by day, with wintering lapwings, golden plovers and greylags.
• Winter wetlands: geese, ducks & cranesItaly · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Dec–28 FebGoose flights at dawn, whistling wigeon rafts, cranes bugling as they pass north in late winter.
• Spring crane staging: Hornborgasjön and PulkenSweden · Migration · peak 25 Mar–12 AprThousands of cranes bugling in chorus — trumpeting that carries for kilometres, rising to a roar when a flock lifts; unison calls of pairs, wing noise of landing flocks, whooper swans and lapwings in the background.
• Cranes dancing on the dune heaths and bogsDenmark · Dawn chorus & song · peak 15 Mar–20 AprCrane pairs duetting and bugling across the wet dune slacks at first light, the dance's wing-flaps, curlew, golden plover and snipe drumming around them; ravens; the North Sea in Thy.
• Cranes at Lac du DerFrance · Migration · peak 20 Oct–20 Nov and 10 Feb–10 MarTens of thousands of cranes bugling as they leave the lake at first light in wave after wave, then the evening return with the sky full of trumpeting skeins.

More: all spectacles in the United Kingdom · cranes · winter geese, swans and ducks · the United Kingdom in January · the United Kingdom in February · the United Kingdom in March · the United Kingdom in December