First Bewick’s swan wintering in Slimbridge

This is a Bewick’s swan video from Harbridge, Hampshire, England, 6 January 2008.

From British daily The Independent:

First Berwick’s Swan heralds birds’ return to UK from Siberia

By Laura May

Sunday, 2 November 2008

The first Bewick’s swan of the year has finally returned to an English nature reserve, putting an end to fears that the birds had decided to spend the winter in an unseasonably warm Siberia.

Hundreds of the birds usually arrive at Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire in October. As the month wore on fears grew that climate change meant that the weather in their summer retreat was still so warm the swans might not come back to these shores.

But the arrival of a bird called Anga, at 6.30 yesterday morning, confirmed that the swans were on their way back, said experts at the centre. She has visited Slimbridge every year since 2005 and has been one of the first to arrive for the past four years.

See also here.

Why has this article, on the Independent web site, and maybe also in the Independent print edition, a photo with it, not of a Bewick’s swan where the article, and the photo caption, are about, but of a mute swan? At least last time that I looked at the Independent site. Mute swans are much more common birds than Bewick’s swans in Britain. They are in Britain all year, contrary to Bewick’s swans.

And why does the headline call a Bewick’s swan a “Berwick’s Swan” though it has nothing to do with Berwick town?

See also here.

Update January 2009: here.

Last of the Bewick’s leave Slimbridge for the Russian Arctic, April 2009: here.

Bewick’s swans in Belgium: here.

The report – Waterbirds in the UK 2006/2007 – reveals that 143 sites across the UK are of international importance for 43 species of waterbird, either during the winter or during migration periods: here.

Rare Bewick’s divorce observed at Slimbridge: here.

October 2010. The first Bewick’s swans of the season have arrived at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire, heralding the start of winter – and it may mean that it could be even colder than last winter: here.