Family of Eight Swans-a-swimming at Slimbridge!
The largest Bewick’s swan family ever recorded at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire has arrived raising hopes amongst conservationists that this year has been a strong one for the declining NW European population.
Slimbridge regular Everton brought his new mate Rovers with a whopping six cygnets to the reserve.
Normally the maximum eggs laid by a Bewick’s swan would be six and the chances of all these hatching and then making it through the first few months would be very slim.
Larger swan families tend to be more dominant so this huge family is now an imposing force on the Rushy Lake overlooked by the Peng observatory. They have joined 200 more of the threatened wild swans which winter at Slimbridge after their 2,500 mile journey from their breeding grounds in arctic Russia.
Julia Newth, swan expert, said: “After laying the eggs in June this year, Rovers, who is female, will have incubated them for 29-30 days with some help from Everton. During this vulnerable time, both parents will have closely guarded the nest and protected their brood against predators such as Arctic foxes, wolverines, white-tailed eagles and skuas just to name a few. This would have been a perilous time for the family.
“Then would have come a period of rapid weight gain with the swans feeding day and night on the abundant wetland vegetation and berries.
“When September arrived, the family escaped the arctic winter by embarking on their long journey to reach us.
“We are very excited by their arrival and hope this might be an early sign that the Bewick’s have had a good breeding season and conservationists working in the Netherlands will soon be reporting on data collected from countries important for the swans, including Britain, to reveal if this is the case.”
You can see the Bewick’s swans at our floodlit swan feeds every Saturday and Sunday night at 6.15pm. The event costs £6 for adults and £4 for children. For more information on the event or to read Julia’s swan diary go online to www.wwt.org.uk/slimbridge.
