GERMANY: Hamburg's swans are taken to their winter quarters ready for the oncoming cold weather
- 00:00:03
- ITN Source
GERMANY: Hamburg's swans are taken to their winter quarters ready for the oncoming cold weather
Hamburg's swans have been moved into their winter quarters before the river Alster's water freezes and causes the city's mascots to starve. The tradition of moving the swans away from the river is said to date back hundreds of years, in 1664 the city council placed them under protection. Since 1818 a "Swan Father" has been charged with this task. Every year the Hamburger swan catcher Olaf Niess looks after Hamburg's swan population in the frosty winter months, just as his father had before him. The semi-wild birds are moved from the Outer-Alster river where they stay during warmer months to a nearby lake where they survive the cold. On Monday (November 27) Niess gathered his 100 or so protégés on a barge, the way they have always been transported, but a feat easier said than done, not all the large birds like the idea of leaving their lake. "We caught around 65 birds today. We shall be doing the same for the next day or two, but as you see, we have the vast majority in the winter quarter already, so in the next couple of days we should have them all here at home," Niess said. In order to escape injury from the birds' beaks or wings, the swan catchers tie their wings and feet together for the short boat journey to the Mill Damm in Eppendorf. Here pumps ensure all winter long that the water won't freeze over. "We have the chance to protect the birds from oil, that means the winter quarters is oil-proof and has oil-free mats around it. And we can also feed the animals here, on the one hand they look for their food themselves, but on the other they get light nourishing meals from us. And the third point is that we can keep the water ice-free here, even if it gets down to minus 25 degrees celsius, that is no problem, we can keep the whole area open." To the pleasure of the city's bird fans, the pampered birds will be returned to the Outer-Alster river in the spring.
ITN Source | December 3, 2006
