Whooper Swan Update!
The weather is cold and snowy, the sky is grey and the air is filled with the sounds of whooper swans.
Every day we feed the swans a barrow full of barely and count them. At the beginning of the season there are maybe 20 but the numbers trickle in steadily and now we have over 100 on a daily basis.
These swans come all the way from Iceland, travelling 800 km to spend their winter at Caerlaverock and other places around the UK. You might think our winter is cold and dark but try spend it in Iceland – you’d want to migrate too! By counting the swans and recording the rings that we see, researchers are able to estimate the population, draw conclusions about which swans have divorced, remarried and had cygnets and age of individuals.
We’ve had 25 of named individuals this year (see below for the full list). It has been exciting seeing them come in every day and adding new birds to our list.
| ZJH | Aspen | . - | ZHL | Whoopy | ||
| ZLA | Beatrice | . | YHV | Wowsie | ||
| ZJB | Blessing | . | Renfrew | |||
| ZVX | Brooklyn Belle | ZND | ||||
| ZY2626 | Elsie Barbara | ACF | ||||
| ZLP | Keith John | TUZ | ||||
| ZNJ | Lanrigg | UNR | ||||
| XLX | Linda Graham | ZLB | ||||
| ZNP | Lucky Linda | ZNB | ||||
| ZJN | Nado | ZY2889 | ||||
| ZVL | Nobby Nobkin | ZY8717 | ||||
| ZNC | Rowena Two | ZY8732 | ||||
| ZPY | Siguardswan |
Words by Marianne Nicholson
Feature image of a whooper swan by Alex Hillier
