Photo 1. A flock of nine swans in Rijeka Harbour (Photo by M. Randić)

SWANS IN RIJEKA HARBOUR

This year (2012), small flocks of swans have been sighted
wintering in several locations in the broader environs of Rijeka. This
is not unusual, because we have already witnessed this “eye-catching”
phenomenon in recent years (and reported about it on the Priroda Web site).
On 21 December 2012, Andrej Radalj, licenced bird-ringer of the Institute
of Ornithology and external associate of Public Institution “Priroda”,
captured and ringed the first swan out of a flock of nine mute swans (Cygnus
olor) that are wintering in Rijeka Harbour. A juvenile from this year’s
clutch, the ringed swan has darker feathers and a blackish bill in comparison
with the adult swans that have orange bills and white plumage. The swan
was ringed with a yellow neck-collar with the marking 89PA. Interestingly,
there is another swan in this flock that carries a leg-ring, and data
from the ring tells us that the swan comes from the Czech Republic. Yet
another ringed swan, from Poland, was sighted in the broader environs
of Rijeka, that is, on Tribalj Lake. All this information is very interesting
because it tells of the routes that swans follow from distant northern
regions to spend the winter in our country. The bird-ringing scheme in
the broader Rijeka area will continue, and we hope that after this winter
“our” swan (the one ringed in Rijeka Harbour) will be sighted
and identified at some distant location.

M.R.

Photo 2. Juvenile swan with yellow neck-collar (on the left side) (Photo
by M. Randić)

Sl. 3. Crvenokljuni labud s prstenom iz Poljske snimljen 16.12.2012. na
Trbaljskom jezeru u Vinodolu (snimio: Dario Štefančić)