Great to see another of our birds returning safely from their breeding season in Europe. Thanks for submitting your sightings via our online app 👍

Did you know Whooper Swan bill patterns are total unique to each individual? Just like our fingerprints. Two of the types are known as yellow-nebs (left) and penny-faces (right). We mostly caught yellow-nebs, with a few penny-faces also 💛

Great to see these birds returning after a tough few years. Recent sightings coming from Poland 🇵🇱, Norway 🇳🇴, Sweden 🇸🇪, Finland 🇫🇮, Netherlands 🇳🇱, Germany 🇩🇪, Ireland 🇮🇪 and Denmark 🇩🇰

Here is 215N seen a couple of days ago in Vækerø, near Oslo in Norway 🇳🇴. It becomes the 67th bird reported overseas this year! See the full sightings map here - waterbirdcolourmarking.org/sightings-bh/

We're back home from Iceland.
Read all about our trip, the catching effort, totals & how to report these colour-marked Whooper Swans to us... …birdcolourmarking.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/ws2023…

Fun fact from our latest trip!
The total combined weight of the 480 Whooper Swans we caught was over 3.5 tonnes! That is the same as the tongue of a Blue Whale!

All that remains to say is THANK YOU to our friend Sverrir Thorstensen for working with us & helping to make the trip a success! Come autumn 400+ more colour-marked Whoopers will be headed for Britain & Ireland. Keep an 👀 out for them!!

& we're done! The team are now headed back to Reykjavik after two weeks of Whooper Swan catching. In total, 480 Whoopers were caught, of which 436 were new to ringing, 41 Icelandic recaptures & 3 British ringed birds also caught.

Our busiest day yet with 110 Whooper Swans caught on a single lake today. Most (98) were new birds to ringing. We're looking forward to receiving sightings of these birds come autumn & winter! #WhooperIceland2023
(Photo Scott Petrek)

It’s been a pretty incredible first few days in Iceland, surrounded by incredible scenery and birdlife! Over 100 Whooper Swans now tagged for our new Waterbird Colour-marking Group project, and a few wader chicks for good measure (Whimbrel & Golden Plover). #WhooperIceland2023

Busy day at a single lake today with 9 broods of Whooper Swans to catch & a few non-breeding adults, resulting in 61 new birds ringed today #WhooperIceland2023

Excellent 5 star taxi service, prompt service, friendly drivers & lakeside to lakeside drop off available for all Whooper Swans in Iceland 😄 Another day catching & ringing for us. #WhooperIceland2023

A pause in Whooper swan catching to announce our latest roundup of all things Barnacle Goose catching. Read all the latest from our catches back in July which saw some 600 geese caught... …birdcolourmarking.files.wordpress.com/2023/08/by2023…

& we're off! A good start today to our new Whooper Swan project with 25 birds colour-marked. Here's Stephen Vickers bringing in the first birds ready for Scott Petrek to ring. #WhooperIceland2023

We've arrived in #Iceland and looking forward to kick-starting our new Whooper Swan study. Yesterday, the team took the scenic route through the highlands to reach our study sites in the north. The trip included seeing geysers, Harlequin ducks, Arctic Fox & White-tailed eagle!

We've had a fun few days assisting Lincoln Swans with their annual catch, ringing & health checks of Mute Swans around the city.

Hundreds of Whooper Swan rings made up. We are now ready to head out to #Iceland this week to deploy them! Exciting! 🇮🇸

We're looking forward to kick-starting our new study on Whooper Swan. Our team will be out working in Iceland with Icelandic bird ringers in the coming weeks. But first, we need to make up the rings!

The team has recently been on the road undertaking our annual catch of Barnacle Geese. A total of 600 geese were caught at 5 sites, with lots of new birds colour-marked. Keep an eye out for blue and yellow leg rings & white neck collars.

We're starting to get quite a few reports of our dead #NWBHGs ringed Black-headed gulls found in colonies across Europe. Help track the spread avian influenza by reporting all dead birds to BirdTrack and in the UK reporting to Defra UK. (📷 S Martin)