Record year for Great Crane Project

31/08/2018

Three Common Cranes have successfully fledged at Slimbridge WWT, marking the most successful year yet for the Great Crane Project's reintroduction scheme. Since the release of 93 captive-reared cranes on the Somerset Levels, a breeding population has become established in the South-West, and five pairs nested at Slimbridge this year. The birds have occupied sites on the Severn Estuary, which have been managed by WWT staff to encourage breeding, with the first of the juveniles recently taking to the wing for the first time.

A total of 21 pairs nested across the South-West in 2018, which is a bumper year for the project. Dave Paynter, Reserve Manager at Slimbridge, was naturally delighted with the record-breaking breeding season: "We're extremely pleased that our efforts have paid off. It's been quite a spectacle watching two young cranes practising their flying skills out on South Lake; now that the young birds can fly, they’re less vulnerable to natural predators. With recent reports implying cranes are here to stay in the UK, this is another boost to the future of our growing population."

Common Cranes breed across East Anglia, Yorkshire, north-east Scotland, and now Wales and the West Country too, and the latest population model predicts there could be as many as 275 breeding pairs across the UK in 50 years' time – a figure that has been significantly bolstered by the reintroduction project. The species was widespread across the country up until the early 17th Century, but was driven to extinction by the loss of wetlands and hunting. 

Damon Bridge, Conservation Officer at the RSPB, said: "It is incredible to see birds we've hand reared and released in the early years of the project now rearing chicks of their own, and doing it all themselves. The number of second-generation birds is slowly building. With the six this year (a record for the project), there are now 17 second-generation birds in the founding flock – some of which will be breeding themselves next year."

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U.K. Heat Wave Triggers Rare Flamingos to Lay Eggs for the First Time in 15 Years

None of the eggs were fertile, but conservation officials have hatched a plan to encourage the flamingos to breed again

By Brigit Katz

SMITHSONIAN.COM
AUGUST 13, 2018 3:17PM

A scorching summer heat wave has been sending things a bit topsy turvy in the typically-temperate U.K. Water supplies have been depleted, traces of ancient structures are cropping up in parched fields and demand for thirst-quenching beverages contributed to a beer shortage. Emphasizing just how high temperatures have climbed, a nature reserve in Gloucestershire, England announced last week that a hot spell prompted its rare Andean flamingos to lay eggs for the first time in 15 years, as Yonette Joseph of The New York Times reports.

With weather conditions mimicking their warm natural habitat, six Andean flamingos at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) Slimbridge were recently triggered to lay a total of nine eggs. The reserve said in a statement that the rare pink birds, which hail from the Andean plateaus of Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, are notoriously “fickle breeders and can go years without nesting successfully.” They usually lay just one egg, and when the climate isn’t favorable, they often do not breed at all. The ones at the WWT haven’t laid any eggs since 2003, when the weather was similarly hot, according to The Telegraph’s Sarah Knapton. The birds’ last successful breeding period was in 1999.

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Swans reunited as missing mate returns to rekindle 19-year romance

Sarah Knapton, science editor 

22 JANUARY 2018 • 6:03PM

A heartbroken swan who flew into Britain alone six weeks ago after losing his mate during the 2,500 mile journey has finally been reunited with his partner.

Wildlife experts at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust feared the worst when 26-year-old Bewick's swan Croupier arrived without Dealer, who is mother to his 29 cygnets.

The pair have been together for 19 years and are part of a lineage of swans which can be traced back decades. 

Bewick's swan numbers have plummeted in the past two decades and it was feared Dealer may have been shot or poisoned on her journey back from Russia. 

But on Monday the Trust in Gloucestershire announced that Dealer has finally arrived after going missing for six weeks.

WWT’s swan expert Julia Newth said: "During the 19 years they were together, Croupier and Dealer reared and brought back to Slimbridge 29 cygnets.

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Oldest living British Bewick's Swan returns

25/12/2017

The oldest living member of a Gloucestershire swan dynasty has returned from the Russian Arctic to winter at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).

Croupier, the 26-year-old leader of one of the biggest Bewick's Swan families ever studied at WWT's famous Swan Lake at Slimbridge, arrived on Wednesday to the excitement of researchers.

The ‘cobfather’ was sadly minus its long-term partner, Dealer, who is mother to 29 cygnets that they have brought back together over the years. Researchers hope that Dealer has become separated from its mate on the long migration and is still out there somewhere, but as Bewick’s Swan numbers have plummeted in the last two decades, they fear the worst.

Croupier’s grandfather Nijinsky began wintering at Slimbridge in 1969. Its mother Casino, at 27, was one of WWT’s longest living wild swans, safely escorting 34 cygnets on the 2,500-mile journey from Russia to Slimbridge during her lifetime. 

WWT’s swan research assistant Steve Heaven said: “Families tend to be the dominant groups on our Swan Lake and Croupier is from one of the oldest dynasties, which have ruled Slimbridge since the sixties.

“We can trace the legacy of these powerful swan families as we’ve been studying them closely for decades and drawing up family trees, using their distinctive bill patterns to identify each member. Our long-term study of the Bewick’s Swans at Slimbridge has shed light on their ecological needs, important for survival. This information is crucial for helping us to understand why the population has been struggling.”

As Croupier demonstrates, swans live a long life but they don’t produce many young. Bewick’s Swans lay around five eggs each year on their Arctic breeding grounds, but usually only one or two cygnets make it to their wintering sites in Western Europe. The stakes are high with Bewick’s Swans in decline in Europe and the WWT's recent research has shown that their survival rates have reduced. However, it’s a good bet that Croupier’s faithful family will return to Slimbridge for many years to come.

For more information on Croupier, visit WWT’s swan expert Julia Newth’s blog here.

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