Gotcha!

Mid last week the Abbotsbury Swannery boys came over again, hoping to catch the male Mute Swan that slipped the net a few weeks ago.  It wasn't as easy as our first attempt as the female clearly remembered us and remained a little nervous, which rubbed off on him. Despite this though within a few minutes thanks to some superb tiger-esk stalking from Steve G, he was in our hands...

As you can see from Steve's expression in the lower of the three photos he was a heavy boy, weighing 3kg more than the female at 13.5kg.  And he can now be known as DJO.

Swanning About

I'm writing this post sat outside in the back garden with a well deserved mug of tea, listening to Redwings and a few Fieldfare flying over in the dark.

On Wednesday, Steve the Deputy Swanherd from Abbotsbury Swannery (see his blog: http://stevesswannerysightings.blogspot.co.uk/) came over with a small team to help me catch a pair of Mute Swans, so we could ring and colour-ring them. They've got some important bits of kit that I haven't, plus the necessary catching skills!  

We managed to complete 50% of the task and catch and colour-ring one of the birds, a female that weighed a whopping 10.4kg!!

Steve and the lucky lady.

Fitting the colour-ring.

Weighing her.

And here is DJN!

Many thanks chaps, hopefully see you again soon for round two!