As a regular reader, you’ll know I love Owls. From January through to the height of summer, they’re a source of evening entertainment for me – and often for my wife, Amy, too. As spring gathers pace, I usually start visiting a couple of private sites with breeding Long-eared Owls each evening, occasionally scanning for any lingering Short-eared Owls as well.

But this spring has shaped up quite differently, with my attention drawn slightly further afield to the rather wonderful reserve of Willow Tree Fen. I’ve seen some great birds there over the years, including several visitors from Europe – a stunning Red-footed Falcon and an overwintering Bluethroat, to name just two. Since its creation in 2009, it’s been a brilliant site for waterbirds, but there’s one species whose success has truly towered above the rest.

The Common Crane was anything but common in Britain. Once extinct as a breeding species by the 18th century, they began to recolonise the Norfolk Broads in the 1980s. In Lincolnshire, however, they hadn’t bred for over 400 years – until something rather marvellous happened during the gloom of 2020.