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The smallest of the UK's wild swans, Bewick's have more black on their yellow bills than Britain's other long-distance migrant, the whooper.

Numbers of whooper swans are predicted to double in the UK by 2030, thanks to efforts to protect the wetlands where they spend the winter.

In the harvested corn fields, big flocks of muddy whooper swans were eating leftovers, but apart from them, not a bird sang.

Only about 800 “whoopers” exist, according to the International Crane Foundation.

The Green Belt of Fennoscandia, for instance, is not just a landscape of elk and whooper swans — it is the home of the Indigenous Sámi, whose traditional knowledge of plants, animals, and geography is encyclopedic.