Whoopers fly in as Bewick's move closer!
The familiar bugling call and flashes of yellow and black beaks got the pulses racing at Slimbridge this morning but still no Bewick’s to be seen! Two whooper swans touched down on the reserve, intriguingly with two young mute swans.
The whooper swan, which migrates from Iceland, is quite uncommon in Gloucestershire with only a handful or so venturing to the area each winter. They tend to winter further north, settling at sites in northern and eastern England, Ireland and Scotland. Several thousand will stay at our Martin Mere, Caerlaverock and Welney centres where numbers are already building quickly.
So where are the Bewick’s? The latest news is of a continued movement into Europe. Thousands of swans have been seen passing through Haeska in Estonia since the first birds arrived there on 26 September (Trinus Haitjema). Several swan spotters have seen birds leaving the Dutch coast and seemingly embarking on their journey across the North Sea towards the UK so we are expecting news of the first arrivals here shortly..........
