When do swans fly??

Chilt

Chilt

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Nick
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My aim is to get a swan in flight.. But to be perfectly honest, ive never seen one fly in my life? Any tips?

ATB
Nick
 
Very rarely! I assume only really when covering longer distances, ie finding a new body of water to live on. I'd think therefore your best bet will be autumn-spring, whenever parents chase off their adult young to make way for some new chicks - if I remember rightly this is often only every 2 years for swans.

Inbetween it really is pure luck if they fly - I've not seen it all that often.
 
River swans tend to fly more often if there is a bit of current for them to fight. Also morning and evening as they fly to and from fields of grass to feed, they need/like a bit of a breeze to take off into as well so that will tell you which way the will head to get airborn or land (into the wind that is).
 
Ahh right guys, thanks for the replies. So ive just gotta do a lot of waiting and hopefully get lucky!

ATB
Nick
 
I saw 8 swans flying when I got off the train last night at 6.30pm. I don't know if that is a favourite time or it was just when they were passing? It was roughly one hour before sunset.
 
Take some bread. Throw it in the water. Thay seem to be able to spot it for miles.
 
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Steve-T said:
well, if you can wait until winter when the whooper swans are about and visit Martin Mere you are guaranteed to see lots of flying swans
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Was just about to say that exact thing, when the Whoopers migrate over here for the winter there are large numbers fly into Martin Mere on a regular basis......course that might be a bit of a long wait so maybe something to keep in mind come autumn.
 
Big Andy said:
River swans tend to fly more often if there is a bit of current for them to fight. Also morning and evening as they fly to and from fields of grass to feed, they need/like a bit of a breeze to take off into as well so that will tell you which way the will head to get airborn or land (into the wind that is).
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^^^ This!

Swans are like pheasants; ie they're lazy buggers (especially Mutes) and will only fly when they absolutely have to, and hardly at when the wind is light.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Guess its gunna be a random thing then! :p

ATB
Nick
 
Without wanting to bring the tone down but you wouldn't want one of them doing their business while flying over head.

:exit:
 
Chilt said:
My aim is to get a swan in flight.. But to be perfectly honest, ive never seen one fly in my life? Any tips?

ATB
Nick
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Pure luck sometimes!

We were out walking last winter & were feeding the ducks, swans from the other side of the lake decided they were hungry.



Just got to be ready :shrug:

Good luck.
 
They will occasionally take off at this time of year in order to chase away a competing male. They're also a bit more predictable since if you see two males displaying and they get a bit close to each other then one will often go after the other to chase him away. I got this one the other day doing just that:
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There were wuite a few flying at arundel on friday, noisy thing, you can hear the wingbeast before you see them ;)
 
Saw a few in flight last Tuesday on R. Aire. They flew off as three of us paddled kayaks towards them. I had this in the past. Some will let you glide past but most take to the sky. Find a stretch with swans that is kayaked.

Ken
 
Saw some in flight today while I was out with the kids, first thing that came into my head was this thread :LOL:, I've never pictured birds in flight before so I panicked and the only two I managed to grab that wasn't completely out of focus were these two
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Nick, as your in Cannock, pop down to Chasewater you often see them flying around there from the main lake to the man made pond by the Innovation centre. You may have to hang around as others have said, but I have taken a few photo's of them there.


in-flight-10 by Terru, on Flickr

Terry
 
As a member of the Arundel WWT, I have often seen swans flying around the reserve, even managed to capture some once or twice.

These 2 were flying across the reserve, the next one was flying across one of the lakes inside the reserve.



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John:)
 
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