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Here are some cold hard facts; Welney WWT is the business and I absolutely love Whooper Swans. I have been fortunate to visit Welney twice this week and I am due back again this coming Thursday. As well as the soaking up the landscape-level birding I love ring-reading. 

I didn't actually read any rings on the reserve, but on my way home, and safely over the boundary into Suffolk, I stopped to peruse a herd. There were two white-ringed birds, sadly too distant to read the rings. This yellow-ringed bird 'ZCU' was close enough to confirm the digits:

I assume the bird is Icelandic - which means it has covered the1000 miles (as the swan flies) from Iceland to be wintering in East Anglia: 

It was ringed at Martin Mere back on 01st March 2016, returned to Martin Mere in October of both 2017 and 2018, then wintered again in 2019. 

After a few blank recording years - possibly owing to the Covid lockdown? It was first recorded in East Anglia in January of 2022, just over the border at Southerly, it was last recorded over the border in Suffolk again in January of 2022 at Cooks Drove, Mildenhall. 

After a gap of almost three years I set eyes on it - with five cygnets in tow near Kenny Hill, again in Suffolk. When caught in 2018 ZCU was confirmed as an adult male, so it is at least nine years old. Some way to go to threaten the Whooper Swan longevity record, but I hope to see it again in twenty years time!