First family arrives!

Over the past two days, 23 new swans have flown in on a north-easterly breeze, including the first family of the winter! Pair Croupier and Dealer have arrived with five cygnets, continuing one of the longest family lineages at Slimbridge and demonstrating the extraordinary site fidelity of this species.

Croupier’s family tree is extensive. His grandparents Caroline and Nijinsky, first visited Slimbridge in 1969 and two years later brought back two cygnets, one of which was Croupier’s mother, Casino. Casino became a Slimbridge faithful, visiting for 26 years of her life. For many years, she was the oldest bird to have ever visited the reserve, but this has now been surpassed by Winterling who will be 29 years old if she returns this winter!

Croupier is now 20 years old and has been with mate Dealer since 1998. They have brought many cygnets back to Slimbridge with them over the years but this is by far their largest brood. So the ‘Gambling Dynasty’ continues!

The Bewick’s have suffered a series of poor breeding seasons in recent years. The reasons for this are unclear although weather patterns on their breeding grounds in arctic Russia are likely to be very influential. News from Russia suggests that the ice melted in time for the swans arrival in June which is good news as food and nesting materials are likely to have been more readily available (A. Glotov). It will be interesting to see how many cygnets make it back to Europe this winter.......

There are some other familiar faces among the birds that are new to Slimbridge. We were pleased to see the return of 20 year old Riddler and his mate Riddles, and Winkey who sadly arrived without his mate of 10 years Tinkie.

Many more swans have now reached the Netherlands where there are currently an estimated 5,000 birds (W. Tijsen).

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