Eighteen swans found dead under power line

Eighteen whooper swans have been found dead in a field after flying into power lines, a wildlife officer has said.

The birds were discovered on farmland between Chatteris and Somersham in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.

UK Power Networks, which maintains the power lines, said it was aware of the incident and would look to install bird diverters.

Kane Brides, a researcher for the Waterbird Colour-marking Group, who discovered the dead birds, said he was concerned plans to install more pylons in East Anglia posed "further risks of collisions".

"This is a worry for our waterbird species," he said.

"We need to work with power companies to ensure that lines are sited in the most suitable locations, i.e. away from major waterbird gathering areas.

"With the feeding distribution of the swans changing every year in relation to the harvest, it’s difficult to predict where collisions may occur."

Mr Brides said the dead birds were found in a harvested maize field where more than 2,000 whooper swans were feeding.

A spokesperson for UK Power Networks said the company would not go into detail on this specific incident without an investigation, but added such incidents were "rare".

"UK Power Networks has installed multiple stretches of bird diverters in the eastern region over recent years, with the majority across the Cambridgeshire fenlands, and also around Mildenhall in Suffolk and Wissington and Hilgay in Norfolk," the spokesperson said.

"The diverters make the cables more visible to big birds with poor eyesight that need long take-off and landing paths and cannot suddenly turn away at the last moment.

"As a result, the birds steer clear of the cables and fewer power cuts are caused by their collisions, improving the resilience of the electricity network for local residents."

In 2021, more than 4,000 diverters were installed on power lines across the East of England, the company said.

Most whooper swans spotted in the UK have migrated from Iceland for the winter months.

Their small breeding numbers mean the species is listed as amber on the Birds of Conservation Concern list.

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