Kane Brides 🦆

Big up to the team for working into the small hours last night 🌙We thermal-drone-imaged farm reservoirs across Fenland to better understand the role these vital, unprotected wetlands play for the Icelandic Whooper Swan population 🦢🌍

#Wetlands

📢Looking for counters for the International Swan Census (ISC) on the weekend of 17th-18th January 2026 in West Inverness/Wester Ross and the Isle of Skye.

@btoscotland.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @naturescot.bsky.social

#UKBirding

This time, the washes were ready! 🦢✅
After a 570km U-turn north to Aberdeenshire, likely due to low water at the Ouse Washes, the same swan has migrated south again & arrived to restored, higher levels. A real-world example of landscape-scale habitat assessment by migratory birds.

😍

Cross-system transfer of fatty acids from aquatic insects supports terrestrial insectivore condition and reproductive success - Oecologia Cross-system fluxes of aquatic insects rich in omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 LC-PUFAs), specifically eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), may subsidise ins...

Super excited to share the first paper from my PhD! 🎉

We found that rivers don’t just matter for wetland birds - they also help support terrestrial insectivores, thanks to the flow of energy and nutrients from aquatic insects. 🌊🦟

Read more here: 👉 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Whooper Swans, sounding like a brass band falling down the stairs. Sound up. #ukbirding

Out of office ✔️ Week of nocturnal surveys at the Ouse Washes to map how smaller wetlands support roosting Iceland Whooper Swans. Thermal tech + drones + GPS tracking = identifying key sites & backing landscape-scale wetland protection for migrants 🌍🦢 #Wetlands #Conservation #Ornithology

Studying for an MSc this year & looking for a #seabird research project?

We're looking for a student to help investigate the factors that influence #StormPetrel response rates during playback surveys. 🔊🐣

🔗Do get in touch if you have any Qs: www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu... #seabirds #ornithology

😭

The International Swan Census (ISC) is taking place on the weekend of 17th-18th January 2026 (WeBS January Core Count weekend), counting Whooper and Bewick’s Swans. Follow these simple steps to get involved 👇

@btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @naturescot.bsky.social

#UKBirding #Ornithology

Arrived in Dongying at the opening ceremony of the 3rd International Birdwatching Season. I also enjoyed giving a Western perspective on swan monitoring & conservation at the 2nd International Symposium for Swan Conservation to delegates from China, Japan & Mongolia. #Ornithology

Tonight I'll be sleeping soundly knowing a Grey Heron is watching over me...

✈️ On my way to Shanghai! Excited to work with the Chinese Academy of Sciences — giving lectures and developing new collaborative studies. Then to the 2nd International Symposium on Swan Conservation, sharing our latest results and connecting researchers across the East Asian–Australasian Flyway

Ring on a dead Whooper Swan. Photo by David Tough

Ring on a dead Whooper Swan. Photo by David Tough

Advice from BTO on checking a dead bird for rings

We're now starting to get reports of dead Whooper Swans with rings. If you find a dead bird & feel comfortable doing so - check for rings using the below @btobirds.bsky.social advice 👇🏻 Collecting information on ringed birds helps better understand the impact on different age groups.

Dead Whooper Swan on the bank of a watercourse. Photo by Kane Brides.

If you're out doing your @webs-gsmp.bsky.social counts this weekend, remember to record & report any dead or sick birds you find (info in the link). Bird flu cases are rising.

www.bto.org/our-work/new...

📷 Dead Whooper Swan, by Kane Brides

#UKbirding

Ring on a dead Whooper Swan. Photo by David Tough

Ring on a dead Whooper Swan. Photo by David Tough

Advice from BTO on checking a dead bird for rings

We're now starting to get reports of dead Whooper Swans with rings. If you find a dead bird & feel comfortable doing so - check for rings using the below @btobirds.bsky.social advice 👇🏻 Collecting information on ringed birds helps better understand the impact on different age groups.

I think that is a possibility too, yes! I'm wondering if it's a combination of the two? Lack of water making roosting difficult (plus also not helping with transmission rates) and avoidance based on what they're witnessing around them??

Whooper Swans hit hard as bird-flu outbreak worsens The number of sick, dying or dead birds being reported has been increasing in recent weeks, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, with Whooper Swans particularly affected.

A recent outbreak of bird flu in Britain is causing concern among scientists:

Ahead of the Core Count weekend, don't forget to record any dead birds you see on your WeBS Count on the data entry form in WeBS Online, as well as reporting to Defra for possible collection

Yes please, Richard - thank you!

Thank you!

Please keep an eye open for dead & dying Whooper Swans (and other waterbirds), see thread below on how to report for possible sampling & please also report to @birdtrack.bsky.social so we can start to build a comprehensive picture of the spread 👇🏻

Please also report dead or sick birds to BirdTrack via www.birdtrack.net for monitoring purposes.

Please share this message far and wide with friends and birding communities. Thank you.

Report dead wild birds How to report dead wild birds.

⚠️ Please report sightings of dead birds for possible testing for bird flu via the forms below ⬇️

📌 In England, Wales & Scotland: www.gov.uk/guidance/rep...
📌 In Northern Ireland: www.daera-ni.gov.uk/.../daera-de....
📌 In Republic of Ireland: aviancheck.apps.services.agriculture.gov.ie/report

Whooper Swan sick with bird flu in a field, photograph by Kane Brides

Worrying reports of bird flu (avian influenza) are coming in, including an outbreak in Whooper Swans in the Fens. Other waterbirds are also being affected, and cases are rising.

📷 Sick Whooper Swan by Kane Brides

#UKBirding #BirdingWales #BirdingScotland

Birding The Fens in winter: where big skies meet big flocks At first glance, The Fens may appear stark: a flat, seemingly endless patchwork of farmland stretching across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Suffolk. But this low-lying region hides some of Britain’s most dramatic winter birding spectacles. When the water returns to the washes and floodplains, the landscape transforms into a magnet for wildfowl, raptors and roosting flocks. For birders willing to embrace the chill, The Fens in winter are anything but bleak.

At first glance, The Fens may appear a flat, endless patchwork of farmland. But this low-lying region hides some of Britain’s most dramatic winter birding spectacles, when the landscape transforms into a magnet for wildfowl, raptors and roosting flocks:

🦢 What a swan’s 570km U-turn could tell us about water, wetlands, and a changing climate.... www.linkedin.com/posts/kane-b...

A pretty depressing day counting sick & dead Whooper Swans. Avian influenza is within the population. Please report all dead birds for possible collection & testing. In 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 this is Defra
gov.uk/guidance/repor…
Reporting to @birdtrack.bsky.social also helps with monitoring.

Not yet, but it's on the "to do list" :)

I've been updating our collaborative #CootStudy database. I started the study 17 years ago & thanks to a network of bird ringers across Britain & Ireland we've now colour-marked 4,400 Coot & received over 13,000 re-sightings. Pretty cool for a bird you hardly see in flight! #Ornithology #BirdRinging