15 November 2006

Farmers are helping to attract thousands of wild swans to the Cambridgeshire Fens with the help of sugar beet and potatoes.

Large wetlands like the Ouse Washes are a secure refuge, especially at night, but it’s mostly the winter diet of root crops that brings in the swans, says the RSPB.

Bewick's swan by M Richards

After harvest, sugar beet tops and tails are left on the fields and, similarly, small potatoes miss the harvester. These high carbohydrate foods attract Bewick’s and whooper swans in winter and allow help them return to their breeding grounds – arctic Russia for Bewick’s swans and Iceland for whooper swans – in good condition.

The RSPB encourages farmers close to its Ouse Washes nature reserve to keep the swans’ food supply in the fields for as long as possible before planting the next crop.

Whooper swan by Chris Gomer

Patrick Allpress of Allpress Farms Ltd said: “We’re very happy for the swans to help us tidy up the sugar beet and potato fields after harvest. For me, the flocks of swans on the farm are a wonderful sight that brightens the bleak winter days out here in the Fens.”

Jon Reeves, RSPB site manager at the Ouse Washes said: “Without the support of local farmers like Allpress Farms Ltd and P. J. Farms we would not be treated to this wonderful spectacle of wild swans each year.”

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For further information contact
Ouse Washes: Jon Reeves, site manager 01354 680212
RSPB regional office: Chris Durdin on 01603 660066 or mobile 07734 717020
Patrick Allpress of Allpress Farms Ltd 01354 692552

Additional notes:

Farms close to the Ouse Washes with swans:
Patrick Allpress, Allpress Farms, Manea. Growing leeks, wheat, sugar beet.
Roger Gladwin of P J Farms, Hole in the Wall Farm, Christchurch. Growing sugar beet and wheat.

2. Bewick’s swans migrate from northern Russia along the Baltic coastline, waiting for favourable conditions to make the final leg of their journey from places like Estonia to the Fens. The journey of over a 1000 km is made in one attempt, flying for up to 24 hours and reaching speeds of 60 mph to reach their wintering grounds at the Ouse washes. Whooper swans breed in Iceland and also arrive in the first half of November.

3. Nature reserves on the Ouse Washes managed by the RSPB, Wildlife Trust and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) offer a valuable refuge area for these magnificent winter visitors, supporting up to 16% of the world population. Annual numbers of wintering swans have been increasing: in the 1970s there were typically 1,000 Bewick’s swans and 50 whooper swans. In 2005, there were 5,500 Bewick’s swans and 3,500 whooper swans. Recent counts this November: 604 Bewick’s swans and 3002 whooper swans.

4. The Ouse Washes are a 19 mile (30 km) stretch of seasonally flooded wet grassland between Earith and Denver, intersected by ditches which are noted for their aquatic flora and invertebrates. The Ouse Washes cover some 2,400 hectares, mostly in Cambridgeshire, partly in Norfolk. The RSPB manages 1227 hectares including 184 hectares owned by The Wildlife Trust, Cambridgeshire. Constructed during the 17th century, as a winter flood storage reservoir for the waters of the River Ouse. It is the largest regularly flooded washland in Great Britain. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar site (a wetland of international importance designated under the Ramsar convention).

5. The RSPB in the Fens: the RSPB intends to create 5,000 hectares of new wetlands in the Fens in the next 20 years, and is part of the Wet Fens Partnership that is promoting wetland creation. New wetlands will prove a lifeline for birds and other wildlife, and provide local communities and visitors a chance to discover the unique fenland environment. The RSPB manages wet grazing marshes at the Ouse and Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire and is creating new freshwater wetlands at Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk, at the Hanson-RSPB wetland project at Needingworth in Cambridgeshire and adjacent to the Wash at Freiston Shore and Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire.

www.rspb.org.uk/fens