Home Page Skip Navigation
  • Harbourside - Harbourside
  • Venues West - Venues West
  • Conference Bristol - Conference Bristol Microsite

First family of Bewick's Swans return to Slimbridge


Slimbridge swansThe first returning family of Bewick's Swans arrived at Slimbridge yesterday morning.

Parents Gulfoss and Grindavik brought their ninth cygnet back to the reserve yesterday morning after a journey of thousands of miles from Siberia. The cygnet, which is yet to be named, will learn the route from its parents and will be able to find Slimbridge for itself in a couple of years time.

The trio have been happily feeding on the Rushy, known to many as Swan Lake because of the numbers of Bewick's Swans that spend each winter there. Bewick's Swan Project Officer, Julia Newth, confirmed the identity of Gulfoss and Grindavik from their unique bill patterns and the Darvik rings that WWT fitted on their first visit to Slimbridge.

The happy family were spotted by many visitors who made their way to the heated Peng observatory to enjoy the commentated afternoon swan feed.

Slimbridge's popular weekend floodlit swan feeds begin. At 6:15pm each Saturday and Sunday visitors can head straight to the Peng observatory to enjoy a commentated swan feed, no booking required, cost £5 (£3 child).