The singing swans

AFTER reading about swans in your Christmas double issue (‘Ride a white swan’, December 15/22, 2021), I checked my Franklin Mint bisque royal swan by R. V. Ruyckevelt, which dwells in our bathroom, and found that its beak was correct. It was interesting to read that many of our whoopers spend the winter in northern Britain, so we shall look for them next time we are there. In our coastal area, north of West Cape in Norway, they will stay as the lakes do not often freeze. The other day, 69 whoopers were counted on a lake in our neighbouring municipality. Oddly, we call them singing swans, but I cannot imagine the noise they make in unison. One ring-marked whooper, Svanhild, has become a village pet in another municipality.

Eli Sonja Kolset Vasset, Norway