Current news about the Geman Whooper Swan colour-marking project

The 2000-01 season

During the 2000-01 season 61 individuals were caught and marked with neckcollars at the German wintering grounds in Niedersachsen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

In all 153 different swans were reported in the 2000-01 season. About 2.200 observations of 190 ringreaders were reported. Each swan has been seen eighteen times on average (only birds ringed in the 1999-2000 season and earlier). 73 % of the Whooper Swans ringed and reported in the 1999-2000 season were also reported in the 2000-01 season. Five Whooper Swans were observed which were not reported during 1999-2000.

94 % of the birds were reported from Germany, 17 % from Finland, 16 % from Lithuania, 10 % from Sweden, 3 % from Poland and 1 % from Denmark, Estonia and the Netherland. The Whooper Swans from the German breeding grounds spent the winter on the Bodensee.

Breeding season 2001

Four pairs bred successful in Brandenburg and Sachsen. Ten out of twelve fleged birds have been ringed with neckcollars on the Stradower fish ponds (Oberspreewald-Lausitz) and lake Lugk (Elbe-Elster) with the help of Thomas Noah and Silvio Herold. The juveniles ringed in 1999 and 2000 were reported from the Barycz valley in Poland between May and October (Andrzej Czapulak, Andrzej Zalisz).

Two birds ringed in North Germany were reported from Finland at the end of June and in the middle of August.