At 10:50 this morning a familiar distant whooping sound caught my attention as we walked along the canal above Lightshaw Flash and turning to look behind I could see a flock of whooper swans flying towards us in V formation. A flock of whoopers in flight is always an impressive experience especially on a crisp, freezing cold day like today, and we watched in awe as they passed overhead, 34 birds in total.
Interestingly 46 minutes earlier a flock of 35 birds was recorded flying north over Bakewell in
Derbyshire at 10:04 which is 42 miles south east from Lightshaw, if these were the same flock then 42 miles in 46 minutes equates to (42/46)x60 = 54.78
miles per hour. Whooper swans are said to fly at 55 miles per hour when on migration from Iceland to UK, so todays birds were flying at an amazingly accurate speed and presumably in a more or less dead straight line of direction. If they continued on that north west trajectory and at that speed then 21 miles later they would have arrived at Hesketh Out Marsh on the Ribble at precisely 11:11am.
The third bird from the left looks a bit small to me but I think I'd be stretching it to claim a Bewick's swan!
Also at Pennington Flash, 40 redwings on the ground at Mossley Hall farm.
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