flocks of swans?

[RAPPLEBY2000]

Hi recently just after Christmas whilst traveling through the Cambridgeshire fens (by car) my wife and I saw several fields full of swans literally hundreds possibly thousands of them sat on open fields like woodpigeons do.
we were close enough to be very sure they were swans.

I always thought swans were very territorial.

how could this be?

 

[Shewie]

Could they be visiting Whooper swans from Iceland ?

 

[_scorpio_]

barnacle geese? as far as i know swans dont really do that sort of thing.

 

[locum76]

I once walked through a field of Whooper swans on a foggy night. I couldn't see them but I could hear them honking all around. It was a bit creepy but an excellent nature moment.

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

barnacle geese? as far as i know swans dont really do that sort of thing.

That's what seemed strange to me!

they were definitely swans though, you can't mistake them if nothing else just by their huge size and length of neck!

I guess it was Icelandic Whooper swans!

it was strange,
first we noticed a lot of white birds,
then we noticed how big they were,
(took a double take)
then we noticed they were swans,
then we noticed there were hundreds of them,
then we noticed there were hundreds in each field we went past!
I'm guessing it was some sort of animal warning the cold weather was coming?

 

[Ben_Hillwalker]

Swans are extremely territorial in the breeding season, but more gregarious in the winter.

However, I've never seen mute swans in such huge numbers. So they probably were whoopers who've migrated here for the winter.

 

[Melonfish]

Illegal swan rave?

 

[Shewie]

I think it's something to do with them feeding on young shoots (not sure what) in the fields before they move onto the marshes and then ultimately back home again.

 

[Night Phoenix]

You do tend to get some rather large groups of whoopers at this time of year (we get it alot around here near the lochs and at the local WWT site I worked at for a while, quite funny to seem them land on a frozen lochs hehe)