During the cold weather in December we have had a few extra Swans visiting our fields and they are still with us. We have had 7 Bewick Swans, pictured, and 3 Whooper Swans. They are feeding with about 85 Mute Swans on one of our rape fields, going to roost on the irrigation reservoir, the reservoir where the Terns breed.

Whooper Swans breed in Iceland, Scandanavia and Russia and are forced to migrate because all their breeding grounds freeze up. Bewick Swans are a bit smaller than Whooper or Mute Swans and breed further north than Whoopers so they have a shorter summer. If Whoopers were to breed as far North as as Bewicks the winter would close in before the young were able to fly, quite simply bigger birds take longer to reach maturity.