Surfbirds News

A new interactive website will follow closely the migration routes of nine key swans starting from the three WWT centres at Caerlaverock, Martin Mere and Welney. The fantastic names chosen include Supersonic Bill, Lars and Snow Cloud. For information on the other swans, visit wwt.org.uk/flywiththeswans

Whooper Swan © William Marshall School, courtesy of WWT

WWT's Super Whooper project scientist Eileen Rees, whose blog can be followed on the website, explains: "Whilst we have tracked whooper swans before, we have never done so on this scale. Tracking 40 whooper swans on their spring migration, and a further 10 from their Icelandic breeding grounds in the autumn, will enable WWT to analyse the flight patterns of these magnificent birds between Britain and Iceland. We've previously tracked migration focusing mainly on birds wintering in Scotland and Ireland. This will be the first time that the swans' migration routes from and to the southern parts of Britain have been monitored in detail."

Super Whooper 2009 is a chance to track your favourite whooper swan through the regular blogs, our very own twitter and Flickr pages and the regularly updated maps. You will be able to see for yourself the height at which they are flying, their speeds and where they are headed at any point in time. This all helps to build a fascinating and complete picture of the whooper swans' migration.

This website is a vital element of a project being undertaken for COWRIE*, which aims to find out the migration routes, the heights and speeds at which the whooper swans fly, and the effects of weather conditions on the swans' flight patterns. This data will then be analysed in relation to existing offshore wind farms positioned in the Greater Wash and East Irish Sea areas, as well as potential wind farm sites.

The Icelandic-breeding whooper swans occur in large flocks on the wintering grounds, and can be seen in numbers at several WWT centres during the winter months, notably at WWT Caerlaverock in Scotland (up to 300 birds), WWT Welney in Norfolk (4,000 birds), and at WWT Martin Mere in Lancashire (1,500 birds). They are very site-faithful and it is common for individual birds to return to the same wintering site year after year.