A DEAD female swan has been pulled from the waters at The Basins in Wellington.

A Mr and Mrs Troake found the swan on Thursday evening and took it to the home of former Mayor of Wellington Bob Bowrah who phoned the RSPCA at West Hatch, and DEFRA.

The swan was ringed in July 2011 at Abbotsbury and was recorded as a two year old.  DEFRA collected the swan on Friday night and is trying to determine the cause of death.

Bird ringing in Britain and Ireland is organised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). Each year more than 900,000 birds are ringed by 2,500-plus bird ringers, most of whom are volunteers.

They follow a training process that can take several years to complete to ensure they have the necessary skills to catch and ring birds. The bird’s welfare is always the most important consideration during ringing activities.

Ringing began more than 100 years ago to study the movements of birds. While it continues to generate information about movements, it also allows the BTO to study how many young birds leave the nest and survive to breed as adults, as well as how many adults live from year to year and how many birds disperse to different breeding sites.

Collection of this information helps the BTO to understand why bird populations increase or decrease - vital information for conservation. Details of how many birds have been caught and where and when they have been found are available on the BTO website at www.bto.org/ringing-report