This Saturday saw my first swan talk of the season at WWT Welney

WWT Welney And the the first family groups  of whoopers have started to arrive.

There are around 800 swans there now and numbers will increase over the next few days, the young swans like the ones above will have flown 1200 miles to get to Welney and they are only a few months old, 500 miles of their flight will have been over open sea non stop.

The small Bewick swan will fly in from Siberia having flown a total distance of 2,500 miles, but as yet only 8 birds have been seen in the area but we know there are 1,000 birds in the Netherlands.

You can tell by the yellow bill pattern which is a Whooper and which is a Bewick swan.

The yellow on a Whooper is pointed like a ‘Wedge of cheese’ and extends beyond the nostril as seen in the photograph above, on a Bewick the yellow is rounded like a ‘Blob of Butter’ and does not extend beyond the nostrils.

I shall be doing my swan talk and feeds at Welney now most Saturdays and as yet the water levels are down but all too soon I am sure the floating wheelbarrow will be out.