Tarleton, Lancashire. UK Weather 4th Nov, 2019. Hundreds of migrant Hooper swans and signets from Iceland arrive to feed on the flooded grain fields of north-west England. Their arrival can idicate the onset of cold weather. The first groups of these noisy wild swans & their signets, an advance party of up to 2,000 birds, have made the 500 mile journey from Iceland to overwinter in the Ribble Estuary marshland. During this migration, they travel at very high altitudes; indeed, a pilot flying at 8,000 feet once reported seeing a large flock of swans. Credit: MediaWorldImages/AlamyLiveNews
The whooper swan is a very rare breeding bird in the UK, but has much larger populations that spend winter here after a long journey from Iceland. It has more yellow on its yellow-and-black bill than the Bewick's Swan. Whooper swans spend their winters in this country; they arrive from Iceland in late autumn, returning north again in the spring. They will often feed on fields during the day, eating crops like leftover potatoes and grain, before heading to roost on open water.
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