Bewick's blown in ahead of Festival
An influx of Bewick’s swans to the UK has added to swan numbers at WWT Welney Wetland Centre ahead of this weekend’s Festival of swans.
Three very special swans are amongst the flocks to touchdown at the reserve on the Norfolk Cambridgeshire border. Leho, Eileen and Butters have crossed the North Sea to avoid colder weather on the continent. They join Daisy Clarke, another GPS tagged swan that until now had been the only tagged bird to make the crossing, back in November.
The tagged swans can be followed even if they have not been spotted during their migration as their GPS data is being recorded as part of a study being undertaken by WWT for the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). However, there are hundreds of whooper and Bewick’s swans fitted with individual leg rings which do rely on swan spotter’s seeing them and recording this information.
WWT Welney is looking for volunteers to help with this important work and is running a swan ring reading workshop (10am-12pm, Sat 16 January) as part of the Festival this weekend. This opportunity has been made possible with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the support of the Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership scheme (OWLP).
Louise Clewley, Warden at WWT Welney said:
‘It’s exciting to see newly arrived birds even at this point in the winter. The GPS tagged Bewick’s swans that arrived last week have now provided us with vital information on the routes they take across the North Sea
‘We are also spotting ringed whooper swans that we haven’t previously recorded this winter. With so many swans using the Ouse Washes each winter we need volunteers to help us with our research.’
Wim Tijsen, said:
‘We had a very strange weather situation in the Netherlands last week, in the North East temperatures were -5 to 2C with lots of sleet and some snow. But in the middle of the country temperatures are at 5C and in the South West it was 8C; that’s a 14 degrees difference in 150km!
‘Bewick’s swans using the lakes and wetlands in the North of the country have flown across the North Sea on a last minute trip to the UK for the coldest part of winter. There are 2,000 swans at Lake Veluwemeer, but very few throughout the rest of the Netherlands and low numbers in Belgium due to the cold front.’
The Festival of swans weekend, Sat 16 & Sun 17 January will provide lots of opportunities for people to get closer to these amazing birds and the other species they share their winter home with. Keen swan spotters can join a warden before sunrise to watch the swans taking to the skies first thing (booking essential), or there are plenty of activities during the day to get involved with. Swan feeds, hare walks, bird ringing, owl pellet dissection and photography workshops are just some of the things on offer.
