And then there were two!
Not long after we waved goodbye to the last seven swans last week, two more reappeared! Whirls and yearling Alik had seemingly grown tired of the antics of the territorial pair of breeding mute swans on the main Rushy Lake and took themselves off to the grounds pens. Here they are rubbing alongside a flock of non-breeding mute swans continuing a habit of a lifetime for Whirls who has been something of a loner spending many winters in the Slimbridge grounds away from the rest of the flock.
Whirls is now 22 years old and first visited the reserve in 1993 as a yearling. Their lake switch has other perks - we can now watch these wild Bewick’s swans from just two metres away and there are certainly not many places in the world that you can do that! In 2007, Hosta broke the record for the latest departure, finally flying off on 27 April.
We have heard news from the continent that most swans have now left the Netherlands (with only 30 to 50 remaining on the Ijssellake coast and on Lake Lauwersmeer) but few have reached eastern Europe (W. Tijsen). Freezing weather is still affecting much of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and only small numbers have reached these countries so far with most birds likely to be biding time in Germany (M. Wieloch, D. Boiko, J. Morkunas).
