| WHOOPER
SWANS Report #2
Seamus Burns talks to Mark as the Whooper Swans
are on the move. They leave Toome and come up to Lough
Foyle before flying to Iceland. Listen to
the report.
Find out more by going to the Wildfowl and Wetlands
Trust website:
The
Tracking Project
Anyone traveling along the A6 Belfast to Derry road near
Toomebridge, or along the M1 near Craigavon recently can
not have failed to have noticed some large swan paintings.
The paintings of the large white bird on a blue background
had many people talking and speculation mounted as to what
was going on. The explanation is simply that these are
art installations put in place to help celebrate the link
between the Lough Neagh Wetlands and Iceland. The large
white birds featured are, of course, Whooper Swans, birds
that breed in Iceland and spend the winter with us here
in the Lough Neagh Wetlands. The birds have just begun
their epic journey back to Iceland and their migration
is being tracked via satellite on the internet.
Following several weeks of hard work spent assessing then
baiting potential catching areas in the Lough Neagh Wetlands
this winter, 25 Whooper swans were caught by cannon-net
at 6:30am on 11th March 2008. A team of some 15 people,
including members of the Irish Whooper Swan Study Group,
staff from WWT Castle Espie and the Lough Neagh Wetlands
Biodiversity Officer, helped in ringing, weighing, measuring
then releasing the birds. Six Whooper Swans were fitted
with GPS satellite-transmitters to monitor their migration
from the Lough Neagh Wetlands to their breeding grounds
within Iceland. The location of each of the Lough Neagh
Wetlands Whooper Swans will be recorded 5-times per day,
with the data downloaded every 10 days until the batteries
in the transmitters run out - which may take up to one
year.
Each of the six birds were named after the major rivers
flowing into Lough Neagh and each has a large yellow leg
ring with black numbers. They are Bann (ring number N4B),
Moyola (N4K), Ballinderry (N3D), Blackwater (N3V), Sixmilewater
(N3T) and Maine (N3S).
Find out more by going to the Wildfowl and Wetlands
Trust website:
WHOOPER
SWANS Report #1
Mark Patterson meets the whooper swans of Lough Swilly.
With him are Graham McElwaine from Whooper Swan study
group, Aevar Peterson an Icelandic ornithologist and Seamus
Burns Lough Neagh wetlands biodiversity officer.
Find out more about whoopers:
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