Welney in the Mist and Fog

Sunday 19th December 2021

06.30  to 09.00

My last trip of 2021 was supposed to be a showpiece event.  I booked for "Swans awake", organised by the WWT at Welney in Norfolk, to observe the swans as they took flight from their their overnight roosting sites.   Here's the advert I responded to.

"Join our warden before dawn to watch the stunning sight of thousands of swans waking up on the wetlands.

Time: 6.30am - 9am

Cost: adults £12, children £5
Pre-order a breakfast muffin for £4.95 to enjoy at the end of the morning. We have either mushroom & emental os sausage and bacon to choose from.

Each winter thousands of Bewick's and whooper swans make their winter migration to the UK, to escape colder countries. Bewick's are the smallest and rarest of the three swan species in the UK. Being much more timid than the larger whooper swans they tend to stay away from the swan feeds, so venturing out early gives you the best chance to see them.

The haunting landscape of the Fens fills with the sound of swans calling to one another, their large feet slapping the water as they take off and their wing beats as they pass over head.

During the event we will use the best locations available to view the roosting flocks flying out, towards the end of the event the birds on the main lagoon are given their breakfast before returning to the visitor centre.

Weather permitting.

BOOK NOW"

However the weather soon changed these grand plans and very little went according to schedule. 

 
I was on the road at 02.30 in order to make the 06.30 start.  The weather was awful - damp with mist and fog all the way up, making driving very difficult even on the deserted roads.

  
Worse was to follow.  The fog proved to be a game changer for the main event too.  

• We waited for sunrise to see the swans  - I joined the group in the Lyle Hide which overlooks the area where the Bewick swans would normally roost.  Not today though, ominously it was devoid of swan sounds between 06.30 and sunrise and when daylight arrived there were no Bewick swans at all and there were precious few birds at all.  The theory has it that the dense fog and wet conditions were conducive to the swans staying out in the fields with very little danger.
• When we returned to the main hide there were only about 20 whooper swans on the water but as the 08.30 feeding time approached the numbers grew but never at any significant rate.  There were no Bewick's at the feed at all!
• It wasn't all doom and gloom though.  I did manage to see my first tree sparrows in over 2 years as well as a couple of barn owls, lots of ducks with pintail the pick of these.

What a shame for the organisers of the event and what an anti-climax for we punters. 

I even went looking for the Bewick's in the surrounding areas but the visibility rendered the exercise futile.  

Up to 5 smew had been reported at Fen Drayton in the last few days so I called in there on the way home. The visibility was again awful and the conditions underfoot very unpleasant and after a while I gave up and headed home.  

The weather was the clear winner today - thank heavens for the owls, tree sparrows and ducks.