A strange winter so far....
What an interesting swan season so far! Although the first Bewick’s flew into Northwest Europe ‘on time’, the mass migration of most of the population has stopped and started and stopped again, with periods of cold coinciding with the arrival of many birds and periods of warmer weather doing quite the opposite!
One phrase that keeps cropping up in emails from swan spotters across Europe is ‘warm winter’ and this phenomenon has certainly affected the swans arrival patterns.
Fewer birds than usual have reached Northwest Europe so far with around 3,000 estimated to remain further east in the Baltic states (W. Tijsen). There are still around 500 birds as far east as Latvia (D. Boiko) and over 400 birds in Lithuania (J. Morkunas) and until recently, most areas in Eastern Europe remained ice and snow free which is certainly unusual for this time of year. Several ringed birds have even left the Netherlands and headed back in the wrong direction to Germany (W. Tijsen)!
The swans have simply not had the need to push on west to escape the cold and search for food this winter! A co-ordinated count across the Ouse Washes in Norfolk on Tuesday recorded 1,493 birds which is around half of what we would have usually expected by now (WeBS - the five-year average being 3,185 birds).
Despite lower number at other wintering sites, the Slimbridge faithfuls have pressed on regardless and the 200 birds recorded on the reserve so far this winter is not far off the five-year average for this time of year (228 birds). So with the Icelandic-breeding Whooper swans continuing to arrive at Caerlaverock, Martin Mere and Welney, it will be a white Christmas at many WWT centres regardless of the weather!
