Wim's wild swan chase
Winter has finally arrived! Cooler temperatures over the last few days have triggered the onwards movement of Bewick’s swans as they seek warmer climes further west. Seventeen Bewick's have now arrived at Slimbridge and more are set to drop in over the next few days. Our transmitter swans have been making good progress with Daisy Clarke surging ahead of the rest and reaching the Netherlands. You can keep an eye on their migration by following our tracking map here. While they seem to be making good progress, we are always keen to receive first-hand news of their health and wellbeing, and to understand this, there is only one way to find out… Last week, Dutch ornithologist Wim Tijsen set himself a mission to go out and try and track down Daisy Clarke. The challenges of unpredictable weather and wildlife often makes these things easier said than done! Here is Wim’s story.
Dutch ornithologist Wim Tijsen
16th November
“It was a very dull, rainy and foggy day in this part of the Netherlands, but in the end it cleared a bit up. So I went to Makkumer Noordwaard via the Afsluitdijk highway, which is 40km away from my home. It was already the afternoon when I jumped on the Afsluitdijk and then I realised that my telescope tripod was still at home! So I turned around. Finally at 15.30 I again set out on the Afsluitdijk.
Although it was still dull, I discovered 22 Bewick’s in the north part, went to the little village Makkum, where the birds were mostly feeding in a more shallow part and checked all the swans’ necks during up-end feeding. But no Daisy. At the end of the day, I saw very far away a group of six birds with one yellow neck-collar head-bobbing... I knew it was too far and knew that it would fly away while I was crawling a bit closer. And that was the case, arghh.....
The night was falling by the time I had checked almost 150 birds. So, tomorrow there will be a new chance - it will be clearer according to the weather forecast…..”
17th November
“Today I found Daisy Clarke as the website predicted, at the Makummer Noordwaard, lake IJsselmeer, close to the Afsluitdijk! And it was much better weather, clear sky and almost no wind in an area where 150 Bewick’s were feeding on potamogeton and chara species. I could see that she had a partner, but sadly enough no cygnets, like all the Bewick’s over there. I only found one family with a cygnet in the whole group.”
With this arctic blast set to continue, we expect more swans to arrive so watch this space....
