Swan Upping

[Josher]

..... It's a ceremony that mixes royal pageantry with animal conservation. "Swan Upping" — so called because the boatmen catch the swans by lifting them up from the river — dates from medieval times, when the royal family guarded its rights to the young cygnets as a highly valued delicacy at banquets .....

 

Full story and photographs

[kendo]

We saw them today at Bourne End. Sadly, the spectacle was quite underwhelming.

Though it was nice to see a particularly rude and aggressive male swan restrained.,

while it's cygnets were tagged.