Bewick`s on ice

At the beginning of the week it was quite cold, quite a lot of water in the PBC area had frozen over, leading to birds to being congregated in small areas where there was open water. These two Bewick`s Swans were on the River Welland in an area known locally as Deeping High Bank, but were not associating with any other birds, intent on perfecting their ice-skating skills.

The Bewick`s Swan is the U.K.`s smallest swan, but is a migrant to our shores. Around 9,000 individuals, about a third of the entire European population spend the winter in Britain and Ireland, sheltering from the harsh winters in northern Russia and North America where they breed. The swans in Britain come from northern Russia where they leave their Siberian breeding grounds in September and arrive here in mid-October. They start their return migration before the end of March.