Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)

Every time I pass along the Wareham to Wool road in winter I am reminded just how well the mute swan is now doing compared to when I started bird watching back in the late 1970's. The lower reaches of the Frome is a magnet for them in winter, especially when the river floods as is does most years. We regularly see over hundred birds on this stretch of the river.

In the early 1980's there was real concern about the dramatically falling numbers of mute swans and research on dead birds showed they were consuming significant numbers of lead pellets from fishing lines which was, unsurprisingly, affecting their ability to breed as well as eventually poisoning them. As soon as this was known fishermen changed from using lead weights and the problem halted almost immediately and we now have a thriving swan population again.

They are called mute swans as they do not have a call or song but that does not mean they are always silent as they make an angry hissing noise when annoyed or threatened! There wings also make a squeaking noise when in flight so you usually here swans coming when they are in the air.

The mute swan for me is, as Chris Packham would say, a top ten bird (along with 25 or so other species!). It must surely be one of our most beautiful birds and they are so serene as they glide along the river. Dorset has a special connection with swans, of course, with the swannery at Abbotsbury home to hundreds of them and with Swanage being named after them. I guess that makes the mute swan our county bird?

The mute swan is by far the most common swan species in Dorset and far more likely to be seen than the whooper swan or Bewick's swan. Mute swans can be seen all year round but numbers increase in winter as birds from further north are driven south by bad weather. They can be seen in various locations but obviously the swannery at Abbotsbury is the best place although a visit to Poole Park lake will almost certainly yield mute swans.