Lancashire, UK. 2nd January, 2015. UK Winter Bird Migration. From November until March, Martin Mere welcomes up to 2,000 whooper swans that migrate from Iceland to spend the winter in West Lancashire - a spectacle that is unique to the North West. With their unmissible bright yellow beaks and ungainly run up, they are perhaps not the most elegant of birds' but what they lack in beauty they more than make up for in character and they are coming to Lancashire in record numbers. Credit: Mar Photographics/Alamy Live News
These fascinating creatures have been the subject of years of research and WWT wildlife experts have been able to identify individual swan characteristics as well as learning about their family life and migration patterns. Whooper swans are an impressive size. The largest bird recorded was a male, appropriately named Stonker, who weighed in at 14kg. The average for a male is 10kg and wing span can be up to Their head has a long flat profile, with the yellow of the bill extends to or just beyond the nostrils. They are fine upstanding birds and they tend to hold their necks straighter than other swans. They breed and spend the summer in Iceland and spend the winter here. Migration begins when the weather in iceland forces them south, and this means that some youngsters are making the journey aged three or four months. The crossing from Iceland to the UK is probably the longest sea crossing undertaken by any swan species. They tend to start the migration in the hot springs in the south of Iceland and wait for southerly winds before making the journey of around 900km. The journey can take anything from 13 hours to four and a half days. One named Fiachra was tracked and travelled 814km in just 17 hours. (In Celtic legend Fiachra was one of four children turned into swans.) Speeds of 60mph have been recorded and satellite transmissions from previous studies suggest they fly no higher than 1600m and prefer to fly low as they can ride out bad weather by landing on the sea. Swans can live for up to 20 years which means, in an average lifetime, they can travel over 36,000km. They are attracted to Martin Mere by the presence of a large food source in the form of the surrounding agricultural land which provides grass for grazing, stubble fields containing grain and waste potatoes left over from harvesting. The Mere provides a safe roosting spot, and most of the birds can be found here in the evening and overnight, heading out in the day to feed in surrounding area.
Size: 3600px × 2400px
Location: Burscough, Lancashire, UK
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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