Lone Swan

From The Raptor

Whilst at work last week I received a call asking me to have a look at an injured swan. I put on my wellies and off I went. Arriving at the site just above Kilchoan I was looking for a lochan, but found a flooded field - 'lochan nam field' - and there on the edge was a lone swan, a beautiful looking thing that was fully alert: as soon as it saw me it moved into the water and began to alarm call.

This let me have a good look at it through the binos, and I was looking at a Whooper swan, a visitor to us at this time of year. I watched the bird move in the water and could see no obvious sign of distress. I moved slightly closer to get a better view and then, with lots of noise - its the noisiest and loudest of our swans - it raised up on its very black legs and began to run across the lochan flapping it huge wings (up to a 235cm span) and then took to the air showing no signs at all of injury. It flew in circles getting higher each time and then disapperared out of view over in the direction of Kilchoan Bay.

It was good to be asked to come and have a look at the bird, it would have been a shame if it had been injured or caught in wire or netting or the such. These beautiful Whoopers visit us each winter from the snowy lands to the north, as the ice encroaches and feeding becomes difficult they move to warmer climes. Around 12,000 come to Britain. We don't usualy have them as residents in any great numbers here in West Ardnamurchan, but they do visit - I was watching 12 in the small bay by Mingary Castle last year.

The small lochan was an ideal place to land and have a rest as this is exactly the type of habitat they adore, wet, boggy, and reedy. All swans are big, the Whooper is the second biggest, the Mute swan winning by just a little. The three swans that visit all look alike at first but I think the best way to tell them apart to to have a good look at their beaks. The mute swan has an orange beak, the Bewicks has a black beak with a smallish rounded yellow area at the head end, the Whooper has a black beak with a large triangular yellow part. Our bird will move further south into the borders, or across to Ireland.