This photograph was taken by Philip Giles from the Peacock Tower of the WWT's London Wetland Centre this August.
It shows a corncrake - Philip's first ever! - in a heron's beak.
How amazing! I would say there is practically no chance that you would see a corncrake at this site even if there were several of them skulking around in the grass (which there almost certainly never are!). So for a heron to catch one, wave it around and for it to be photographed so clearly is just, I'll say it again, amazing!
I was pleased to see that the corncrake wasn't ringed - otherwise I'd be worried about whether it was a released bird from the Nene Washes.
Amazing!
Mirlo - sorry for delay in replying - Christmas you know! We are looking at using the sort of technology that we have deployed on seabirds (see next blog) to find out more about corncrake migration (but money is tight). That won't give much information relevant to windfarms but it will, if successful, give fascinating insights into their migration.