Whooper swan arrives back at Caerlaverock for Autumnwatch
17/07/2006 00:00:00 Doon has become the first satellite tracked Super Whooper to arrive at a WWT centre this autumn. He arrived at his winter home at WWT Caerlaverock on 4th November with his mate Balfron, but minus one of their five cygnets.
Doon is one of seven Whooper Swans fitted with satellite transmitters as part of the Lough Neagh Whooper Swan Project this summer at their breeding grounds in Iceland. There, Whooper Swan experts including Richard Hesketh, reserve manager at WWT Caerlaverock and Martin McGill, reserve warden at WWT Slimbridge, were joined by Kate Humble and a BBC film crew to film the Super Whoopers for Autumnwatch.
Doon, Balfron and their cygnets made this treacherous journey together for the first time, and the youngster are only three and a half months old! The group flew from Iceland and headed south over the western isles via Lewis and Skye before hitting the mainland in Ayrshire and landing appropriately at Loch Doon.
Richard Hesketh said: ‘When we saw them yesterday at Caerlaverock we could only see four cygnets, we feared that one of the youngsters must have perished on that terrifying 500 mile maiden flight over the sea. However one of our contacts on the island of Rum reported a lone Whooper cygnet on a lochan and managed to read the ring on its leg and sure enough it was our missing cygnet.
Of the other six remaining Super Whoopers, Blidfinnur also appears to be heading towards Caerlaverock, Fiachra and Merlin are in North East Scotland, Conn and Jaleel have reached Northern Ireland, and Gudjohnson is yet to leave the breeding grounds in Iceland.
Follow their routes
You can follow the flights of all of the Super Whoopers at www.wwt.org.uk/superwhooper and on BBC Autumnwatch from tonight or even better come to see Doon, Balfron and their family with hundreds of other Whooper Swans at WWT Caerlaverock. The centre is open from 10am to 5pm daily with a chance to see the swans at close quarters at the spectacular Wild Swan Feeds at 11am and 2pm every day.
Second Whooper flies into Welney
After a short stay in Scotland, Blidfinnur, one of seven satellite-tracked Super Whooper swans, has flown in to WWT Welney.
WWT’s Super Whooper project scientist Eileen Rees said: 'Blidfinnur has been spotted many times in the past seven years thanks to his leg ring, but these have mostly been in two locations in Northern Ireland, Lough Swilly and Lough Neagh. Whooper swans are quite adaptable birds and it may be that Blidfinnur has been travelling on this migration with a group of Whoopers who traditionally go to Welney, which would account for his change of habit.'
