Swan wrestling

Well, I joined a very able team from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (U.K.) to get wet and dirty catching whooper swans the other week. They are big critters, with potential to really knock you flying with their big wings and impossibly long necks... and yet once you get them in their - temporary - strait jackets they are quiet as mice.


So, here we are, with a boatload of swans after they have just been captured off the water, swans in their restraining jackets, swans being measured, swans stretching their necks, and swans being released (the best bit).

The team capture groups of birds during their flightless phase (during their moult) to put ID bands on them, and record body measurements. A few birds have been fitted with satellite transmitters so that their migration movements can be tracked. Many of these birds have now already left Iceland, and are heading south, many to UK refuges such as WWT centres (see http://www.wwt.org.uk/article/3/514/super_whooper_swans_to_be_tracked_in_new_study.html)

It was a lot of fun, and I´d do it again at a shot - wonderful birds.

We got to stay at a really amazing place in the highlands - the turf cottage where 'Independent People' was set, a novel written in 1946 about Icelandic rural life by award-winning Nobel Prize writer Halldor Laxness. It´s a living museum, with Icelandic puppies ´n´ all! (see the photo of me standing outside and juggling a kitten and a young pup at the same time - all a bit fluffybunny for me but they certainly were quite amusing wee beasties!).