Having made a circuit of northwest Ireland in late April, before returning to his wintering site near Lugrevagh, Co Mayo, for a couple of weeks, swan Y5T finally set off for Iceland on the afternoon of 17th May. He took the direct route, heading straight out across the Atlantic, and arrived over the east coast of Iceland some 40 hours later at around 09:00h on the morning of 19th May. He’s now frequenting the top end of Berufjordhur and we’re waiting to see if he returns to the site where he was first ringed (Sandvatn in Myvatnsheidi) to moult later on this year.

Meanwhile – good news from Skagafjörður where Icelandic colleague Dr Olafur Einarsson is checking whether the swans are suffering a poor breeding season following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in mid April. Oli reports (pending formal analysis of the data) that the number of breeding pairs and clutch sizes seems to be more or less normal this year. He’s also retrieved the transmitter for Ballinderry (ringed N3D), one of the Whooper Swans fitted with satellite transmitters in Northern Ireland in spring 2008 as part of the Lough Neagh Whooper Swan project. The transmitter was on the river island of Borgarey, about 15 m from its last satellite fix, and happily there were no signs of any swan remains. Indeed, Ballinderry was seen several times at Lough Beg in Northern Ireland during the 2008/09 winter, confirming that he had succeeded in ridding himself of his tag!