My brother Ryan shares a Swan blog

Today I've decided to let my brother post on my blog as I've been pretty busy keeping my eye on poachers and as it won't be long till the new life of Spring begins soon and the poachers crawl back under there rocks. I'm not sure if I mentioned my brother Ryan much in my posts over the years so here's a quick introduction to him. Ryan photographs wildlife like me but he mostly keeps an eye on the local Swans all year round. Although he doesn't feed them at the local swan gathering place as a local group does that but we won't mention them as there not the friendliest people in the world. My brother travels around the local areas from Cheshire, Staffordshire and North Wales to collect data from there BTO/ring leg tags which he sends to a local recorder. With this data he finds out how far the swans travel to find a mate, build a nest and spend there Winters. As well as recording this data my brother and sometimes I lend a hand to rescue Swans and other local wildlife that needs a helping hand and this week my brother had to help a local swan "Flash" who got trapped when being attacked by a pair of Swans that have a territory a few miles away.

Thank you for visiting and I'll leave you with Ryan while I put my feet up... 

Cheers Mike
 Stay safe and protect Nature where and whenever you can
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 A quick thank you to Mike for the introduction and allowing me to post on his blog and to all the readers I hope you like my blog posts as much as his and hopefully I could do a few more in the future if he lets me. While out checking the safety of the local wildlife I spotted 2 swans flying over( Male is Barbossa and the female is Elizabeth) and once they saw Flash our oldest local Swan the 2 of them landed and began to chase Flash. He got flash trapped in between the bank and canal boat, so I had to react quickly before he got crushed by the boat or drowned by the local pair. Once I got him out to safety I checked him over all was fine. Because of the pair on were still on the canal I relocated him to River that flows next to the canal so he could easily escape using the faster flowing water to escape if they decided to follow Flash as hes quite an OAS now(old age swan now being 18).

 RED-SWAN PAIRS MAIN AREA / BLUE-FLASHES AREA / YELLOW DISTANCE TRAVELED

I don't think this will be the last Battle to between Barbossa and Flash this year as they have a few months before they choose a nesting site and stay in that area, until then the pair will keep any swans from being on the edge of there territory.

Thank you

Ryan Mottram

Found the Centurion at last!!!

Last week I started my search for Flash and Whisper around all the local bodies of water and I ended up finding nothing or a different pair of Swans that from a distance could have been them. After reaching the last possible small pool which was located in somebody's garden nearby to where Flash was rescued in December 20014. The pond is next to a cottage and is about 300-400M away from the footpath where I can watch from as the pond is on private land. 

 View from the road of the Pond in the summer as you can see the tree's hide it's location

The current view of the pond

You can just about see the pond through the leafless bushes and luckily I could just make out 2 Swans on the water but I needed to see there leg tags. I waited for a while and the 2 swans jumped up onto the edge of the pond where I could just zoom into check there tags which were both green like Flash and Whispers!!!. I took a few photographs so I could zoom in and try to read there tag numbers then I could see if any of the letters match Flash and Whispers tags.

 Whisper                 -                       Flash

Both first letters Look like C and from what I can see the second letters match Flash and Whispers tags

Hopefully the Centurion and his bride will come back very soon once the weather warms up and reeds on the lake begin to push through the waters surface ready for the Swans to pull out and build there nests up high out of the reach of flooding waters.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

A character from the summer of 2014 returns

A quick post to say a young Swan that hatched in 2014 has now returned to the canal. He is easily recognized by his abnormal neck as you will see from the photographs below it's perfectly healthy as it can fly and feed perfectly fine. Here's a link to an old post where I photographed him/her when they back with there parents a few miles from Middlewich.

http://cheshirewildlifewatcher.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/rhinos-little-one-quasi.html

It's nice to see he's survived and hopefully one day we may see him/her fully White and have a family of there own. After the Buzzard find it was nice to have abit of good news and to see an old character from the Summer return and in such good health.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Visit to Middlewich's Swan meeting point

A lovely sunny day yesterday so I popped down to the local Swan meeting point to count the Swans with my brother. My brother aka the Swan Whisperer records numbers of adults and cygnets each day when he can. He also records there tag numbers to update the Swans movements with the local Swan/bird ringer David Cookson. We then find out the Swans movements and histories from where they were ringed, male or female and where they have been spotted over there time since being ringed.
While my brother counted them I took an opportunity to get a few low photographs:

One Swan seemed to own the high ground to get all the food and kept pecking any that would get to greedy

As we were leaving 2 more adults flew in at last light to join the ever growing group of swans

Middlewich Swan meeting area is monitored by a local Swan group who have campaigned and paid for a fence to stop the Swans getting on the nearby road which is great. I appreciate all they have done in doing this for the Swans protection. The small group of 5 also feed and monitor the swans health which is also a great thing to do. Over the past few years my brother has done alot for the swans as I have myself for the Swans and other local wildlife, habitats and conservation over a large local area. We patrol with our cameras regularly to enjoy the fresh air, outdoors and make sure there's no wildlife crimes being committed. We have both received alot of praise and some media attention which was not our intention but if it helps to promote caring for nature locally then I am up for it. We don't have much to do the local Swan group as my brother has received lots of negative behavior from the chairman of the local Swan group but I only care about the wildlife's safety not credit or praise. So to anyone who's bitter about the Swan Whisperer and his work, I would just let it go.
Anyway now that I've cleared that up here's a few more photographs I took yesterday at the Middlewich Swan meeting point
Hard at work ;-)

Keeping the pecking order

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Is it Spring or not spring?

As the end of February was approaching and the weather warmed up for a few weeks. With this sudden change in temperatures things here began to grow from the strong smelling Wild Garlic to the lush fresh green grass and it's all sprouting up on my local patch in Cheshire.

On the lake one of the Great crested grebe pair has returned and he or she will be watches the skies calling out to it's mate or another Grebe flying over. I am hoping they will be both here before mid March and then they will begin there courtship to nest building and then egg laying. Hopefully I will be filming there efforts as there season progress and I really like getting in close without disturbing.  I mainly use mini cams and Camera traps to capture the best action in the day and at night. I have filmed them in this way for the past 2 years and each they return and breed successfully right up to the chicks reaching adulthood and the point they leave in early winter with the adults to spend the winter on the coast.

One strange thing on the lake this year is the absence of the pair of Swans that are normally patrolling the area ready to begin there nesting season. This got me thinking about where Flash and his new mate Whisper are as this got me thinking whether they know more than we do especially about the warmer weather. As the cold weather has returned I'm thinking this may be the case and over the next week or two I'll be checking as much of the local rivers, canals, lakes and ponds to see if I can find them.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Buzzard, Snow and sheltering with the Swans

Over the past few weeks while walking around my local patch we have been seeing a Buzzard near one of the Roman historical areas by the T&M canal. It seemed to be not bothered by us getting close to it and over the next few days I pushed even closer right up to it's circle of fear. The Buzzards here always come close to the towns when we get winter snow and the ground freezes. I guess it's because it gets harder to feed in the countryside and they come to the warmer areas to search for food, so I new it would be around for a while and over the week I found it was feeding on worms in a small and quiet woodland area by the river.
Buzzard perches on a Roman Middlewich information board

Hunting on the river

The local Cemetery covered in snow

I also photographed Flash and Whisper during a snow storm while we sheltered under a canal bridge to wait out the wind that came out of know where and the pair joined us to shelter to. I was only happy to share some of my lunch with them as we were both snowed into this cozy little area.

Before the wind and snow began.....

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Next time -Closer to a stunning bird of prey- Next time

Flash gets a new mate, is it Snow?

A week after Flash was released and he began patrolling his territory in his battle stance with his head up, wings high and body puffed up to make himself look bigger. It seems all his patrolling was not in vain as on Saturday morning we spotted him with a female with a tag. Hopefully in a few weeks he may have wooed this new mate and the cycle of breeding will begin a new which makes me happy to see him come back and achieve so much in a week!!!

My brother has sent her tag details off to the local Swan ringer to find out her history and if the female has only just been ringed or ringed in August 2014 then this female could be Snow who disappeared after going off onto the quieter river to moult her feathers. The female seemed to be very brave and not nervous at all as she seemed to be more confident than Flash.

If the information I get back backs up with when she disappeared then we will call her snow. My gut telling me it's her but we shall see as I could be wrong if it's not her then we need a new name hmm I am thinking either Flake or Elsa (Off Frozen)

I'll be back soon with more news on the Swans and other findings but until then

Stay wild, be happy and be safe

Thank you

Mike

Flash returns....

After weeks of waiting for Flash to be released from Stapely Grange wildlife hospital I was informed yesterday on Twitter that he had been released and he has a new colored leg tag/code to replace his old one. He was released at Middlewich Swannery on the canal. I told the wildlife hospital where his territory was and where he has been for 15 years but the information I gave was ignored so I was abit bemused by this. The next day he was back on his territory giving the 2 unringed Cygnets that we have named Snap and Crackle as they seem to be loving the left over cereals we give them. One of the Cygnets is his and the other from a female Swan called Whisper who lives on a nearby river who Flash spent a few months with over the Autumn. We left him chasing the Canada Geese back and forth so he must be enjoying being back on his home turf and being free. All he needs now is a mate, he should have enough time to attract a new female before they usually begin nest building in late March. Keep checking back as I will be updating his story here and hopefully editing the next part of Flashes history story on You-tube.

Until then here's a clip from the summer with Flash asking for his morning feed of Oats for him and his family.

Thanks for reading my blog

So stay wild, be happy and be safe

Mike

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Flash not home for Christmas :-( after all

Quick update on Flash the mute swan and unfortunately he was ready to be released last Monday as he was back to good health. Last week and Stapely Grange RSPCA at Nantwich confirmed he had been released early last week but I was worried as we had not seen him on his territory.

But yesterday I was informed that he has not been released and is still at the center for some reason. Whether because of it being the festive season and the person due to be bringing him back to where he belongs is to busy till the New year. In my opinion the animal or bird should be put first and every effort of returning an animal to it's area as long as it's safe. It should not be kept captive if in good health just so the person who rescued it can be the one to release the animal/bird to me it's abit selfish if that's the case in this instance. My concern is keeping him there to long may mess up his chances of finding a new mate for the breeding season as this time last year he was patrolling the canal with his mate who left during the summer. They began nest building at the end of February last year so you can see why I'm concerned of the what effect of keeping him at the center may have on his breeding season this year. To have no cygnets on the canal this year would be a shame as they bring so much joy and entertainment to lots of canal users here. Only time will tell when he'll be back but I will keep updates coming here.

 

Thanks for reading my blog and have a great New year

So stay wild, be happy and be safe

Mike

"Just my opinions I'm not saying it's fact, so please don't get offended"

-Tomorrow-

My top 14 moments of 2014

-New years day-

My plans for 2015

Flashes disappearance!!!!!!!

An interesting one today and as Flash the male Mute Swan who I have been filming raising his Cygnets with his mates over the years disappeared for a few weeks and we could not find out where he was. Not sure if he may have died of old age, predation ie.Otter, Fox, flying into power cables or whether he had been taken by Eastern Europeans which I have observed in the area lately it was very worrying. But this morning in the local news paper he turned up and was rescued near his territory on the local canal near Middlewich. Hopefully he will be released next week to his own patch which he will defend and his mate may return or a new female may show up.

The article was wrong in some places about the number of Cygnets but that's trivial stuff.
 Regarding his mate which I named Snow did not die as she and Flash separated/divorced. She used the opportunity of a another Swan dying which was a younger bird as it had grey feathers to escape as we checked the dead Swan to confirm. Snow went off down the river in search of pastures new but will she return in time for spring?!?!?....

Swan divorce is RARE BUT IT'S A TRUE FACT http://www.mnn.com/…/10-bird-species-that-get-di…/mute-swans

  
So stay wild, be happy and be safe

Mike