Whooper Swan on Arran in the Summer
Reports
This year, 2024, there is an unusual spectacle, at least two Whooper Swan are spending the summer on Arran.
Many Whooper Swans spend their winters in the UK arriving from Iceland in late autumn and returning north again in the spring. Most records of this species on Arran are of birds on passage to or from wintering grounds for example on the Solway. Their honking calls are a familiar sound in the autumn and the spring. They often travel in family groups. The earliest arrival date on Arran is 18 September and the latest departure date is 21 May.
In late spring 2018, a single Whooper Swan was seen in fields by Mossend Pond. People were concerned that it was injured but it could still fly and was never caught. While it was capable of limited flight, it was not able to maintain the sustained flight that would have enabled it to migrate to its breeding grounds in Iceland at the end of spring. Throughout that year and subsequent years, the bird was widely reported mainly from the Lamlash Bay area.
On 31 December 2023, a Whooper Swan was on the road between Shiskine and Blackwaterfoot. It was rescued by Charlotte Clough the vet. After an examination that revealed no major injuries, it was released into a field in the Shiskine Valley. At the end of this winter while the Greylag Geese wintering in the Shiskine Valley headed north to breed, the Whooper Swan remained and was regularly seen into early May. Since then, there have been no further reports of a single Whooper Swan in the Shiskine Valley. Instead, two Whooper Swan were reported together in Clauchlands on 29 May. Had the two Whooper Swan got together? While I have no idea of the age nor of the gender of these two birds, throughout May, June and July there have been reports of two Whooper Swan in the Lamlash Bay area with occasional reports of a single bird in Sannox Bay.
Look out for Whooper Swan on Arran this summer.
