Spotted Crake

Thought I would have another ride over to Bedfordtoday to see the Spotted Crake, this afternoon it seemed a lot more mobile flying in between 2 spots on the boating lake plus a Mink was causing mayhem on the embankment very close to the spot,so got a feeling that the crakes departure will be imminent. Lovely bird and a real treat for Beds birders and those from further afield.

Spotted Crake video

Spotted Crake, Bedford Boating Lake, 16th September 2013

More Spotted Crake 16-09-2013 18.30 pm

More Spotted Crake showing really well this evening at the small lake at the top end of the Embankment in Bedford.
Quite elusive at times with difficult light conditions, but a lovely bird all the same. What a treat.

More Spotted Crake

Two more images of the Bedford Spotted Crake, 15th September 2013 by Mike Ilett.

Crake 2

Digiscoped image from Martin Palmer - nice one!

Bedford Crake

Digiscoping would have been the better option for this one. Boating Lake, Bedford Embankment.

Spotted Crake

Another superb find by John Lynch - an adult Spotted Crake, present on the wader scrape at Dunstable STW from 8th-24th September.



More often it was skittish and elusive - not easy to see or photograph ! The above shot was taken on the 15th Sept during a typical 10 second showing !

This was the 3rd record at DSTW:
One present 11th-13th August, 1975; [The Birds of Bedfordshire (Trodd/Kramer)]
One well watched bird 12th-19th August, 1995 (Paul Trodd et al); [The Bedfordshire Naturalist 1995, 50 (part 2)]