Swan counts this winter
We have now finished the fortnightly dawn swan counts for this winter as the first Bewick's swans start their migration back to Arctic Russia. The first whooper swans will be starting their migration back to Iceland this month too.
Peak swan counts for winter 2012/13
Bewick's swan - 3012 (29/1/2013)
Whooper swan - 5432 (7/12/2012)
This winter has not been the best of winters for the swans due to the consistently high water levels on the Ouse Washes, resulting in them having to change their roosting sites a few times. This did mean that in December and early January we had up to 2500 swans roosting on Lady Fen (the wetland creation site next to the visitor centre). We shouldn't see any change in the amount of birds at the 12noon and 3.30pm feeds as the whooper swans and pochard ducks tend to stay until late March. These events run until Sun 10 March.
