Cranes are doing well in the Netherlands, with pairs nesting in the provinces of Brabant and Limburg for the first time, bird protection organisation Vogelbescherming Nederland said this week.

The organisation counted 32 crane pairs in total this year, which, it says, is ‘an absolute record’ and 45% up on 2017. Three thirds of the crane pairs were spotted in the provinces of Drenthe and Friesland and brooding cranes have been seen in Brabant and Limburg for the first time.

Cranes, easily recognised by their size and trumpet call, were absent from the Netherlands for hundreds of years and only made a come-back in 2001 when the first chick was born in the Fochterloërveen wetlands on the border of Friesland and Drenthe.

Of this years’ 32 pairs only 12 pairs had chicks and of these just seven made it out of the nest. That is in itself a disappointing result, Vogelbescherming Nederland said, but drought limited the amount of food available and made the nests more easily accessible to predators.

Despite of a relatively meagre number of new chicks, the crane is here to stay and with wetter weather next year and better protection of nesting sites, 2019 could become a top year for cranes, the organisation said.