While swans are reportedly dying in parts of Europe, victim of the much feared H5N1 virus strain, they were very much in evidence at the Wetland and Wildfowl Trust in Welney yesterday where scores of visitors watched them being fed. I last went to the reserve in December with my MEP Robert Sturdy, who is a rapporteur on bird flu for the European Parliament, and we met Peter Cranswick, who is head of bird monitoring for the WWT. He told us that visitor numbers and school trips were dropping drastically as people feared the bird flu, but this was certainly not the case yesterday, I have never seen it so busy, heaving with wildlife enthusiasts wearing woolly hats and carrying expensive cameras and lenses. www.wwt.org.uk

I took my new Nikon D50 and was lent a 300mm zoom lens and this was my favourite pic of the day, taken in a flash, literally! I wanted to capture the swans arriving, their necks gracefully arched as they glided over the water, but did not have time to hang around. The sight is specatacular. It was interesting to learn that the Bewicks are already on their way back to Russia. The Whooper and mute swans are still there in their thousands, along with the pochards.