Sandhill Crane Grus canadensis
An extremely rare vagrant to Europe from North America - the first three British records were all in the Northern Isles, in Shetland in 1981 and 1991 (the latter being seen in the Netherlands the following day) and in Orkney in September 2009.
The fourth record was much more obliging as it was observed moving down the Scottish and English east coast in autumn 2011. It spent several days in NE Scotland and another few days in East Anglia, allowing birders from all over the country to connect with it. Sadly for me its visit to East Anglia coincided with my holiday in SW Cornwall - it arrived in Norfolk on the first day of my time away and departed from Suffolk on the last day of my holiday.
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part of a large movement of migrating Sandhill Cranes, Bobolink Meadows (BC, Canada), 19th September 2006
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captive Sandhill Cranes, Pensthorpe (Norfolk, UK), 9th March 2014
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