Large numbers of one of Europe's most spectacular birds are arriving in the UK because of unusual wind patterns, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) believes.
Cranes, which have a seven-foot wingspan, have been seen in Sussex, Oxfordshire and Suffolk in recent weeks, said the RSPB.
Officials think that easterly winds are blowing the birds towards the UK as they make an annual trek from southern Europe to Scandinavia.
A spokesman said: "Cranes have been popping up all over the place this spring.
"There is no indication that it is because of climate change. We think it is due to unusual wind patterns. It happens from time to time."
Staff are trying to establish whether the cranes spotted in Suffolk have migrated from Norfolk - where a colony has lived on the Norfolk Broads near Norwich since the late 1970s - or arrived from abroad.
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