More swans arrive in cold weather
As the winds swung to the north-east, the swans came! Over the past couple of days, we have seen the back of the mild and wet weather. The north-easterly winds and clear night skies illuminated by a full moon, have created very good conditions for migration and navigation and the drop in temperatures have encouraged the swans to move on to the west and reach British shores. Numbers at Slimbridge have jumped from 35 to 51 although still fall short of the 70 or so swans we would normally expect for this time of year.
Rosso and Bianco were among the new arrivals, flying in for their thirteenth winter at Slimbridge! They first visited the reserve in 2000 and were caught and fitted with a white plastic leg ring (coded TVH and TUZ) in 2002. Since then we have been able to track them on their journeys to and from Russia as our fantastic network of ring-readers have reported them in various locations. Over the years they have been spotted in Friesland in Holland, the River Ems in Germany and at our centre in Welney, Norfolk!
