Black Swan in Reading

[Derek Porteous]

We moored up at Tescos this afternoon on the Thames in Reading for supplies. Almost immediately two black swans came a begging. Now we have seen occasional black swans on the system before, but this is the first time we recall seeing a pair. Anyone know the origin of these two?

[billS]

There has been a pair there for about 10 years, and a single swan longer than that.

[OldGoat]

Derek Porteous, on 21 Jul 2016 - 4:25 PM, said:

We moored up at Tescos this afternoon on the Thames in Reading for supplies. Almost immediately two black swans came a begging. Now we have seen occasional black swans on the system before, but this is the first time we recall seeing a pair. Anyone know the origin of these two?

Could you actually moor there??

Local feeling is that all the spaces were taken up by liveaboards.

Convention had it that the old dinghy / boatyard / punt boarded bits were left reasonably clear for anyone wanting to shop at the Tesco superstore. As it's the only easily accessible supermarket from St. Aines-on-Thames to Abingdon - it's a bit of a pain for everyone.

[Jerra]

We moored up at Tescos this afternoon on the Thames in Reading for supplies. Almost immediately two black swans came a begging. Now we have seen occasional black swans on the system before, but this is the first time we recall seeing a pair. Anyone know the origin of these two?

There is a small population of black swans around England very few in Scotland and they don't breed terribly well over here. The first recorded wild breeding was in 1851 following them first being brought to the country in 1791.

 

Basically what I am saying is they are almost certainly a wild pair which have chosen to move to the area.

 

EDIT: To add a y.

Edited July 21, 2016 by Jerra

[ditchcrawler]

We moored up at Tescos this afternoon on the Thames in Reading for supplies. Almost immediately two black swans came a begging. Now we have seen occasional black swans on the system before, but this is the first time we recall seeing a pair. Anyone know the origin of these two?

They had a cygnet last year but next time we saw them there was no sign of it so don't know what happened.

[kremmen]

I saw the couple down at Sonning today with a cygnet. They were heading up river. Hopefully this on will survive.

 

Paul

[Derek Porteous]

Could you actually moor there??

Local feeling is that all the spaces were taken up by liveaboards.

Convention had it that the old dinghy / boatyard / punt boarded bits were left reasonably clear for anyone wanting to shop at the Tesco superstore. As it's the only easily accessible supermarket from St. Aines-on-Thames to Abingdon - it's a bit of a pain for everyone.

[Derek Porteous]

Well, there were no spaces, so we came alongside another narrowboat which we thought was unattended (lots of debris on top, back padlocked up). In the event a charming old gentleman popped up at the front. He helped us tie up alongside and said we were wrlcime to stay overnight. We onvly stayed long enough for a quick shop and to feed the black swans and we were off again.

[OldGoat]

Derek Porteous, on 21 Jul 2016 - 6:19 PM, said:

Well, there were no spaces, so we came alongside another narrowboat which we thought was unattended (lots of debris on top, back padlocked up). In the event a charming old gentleman popped up at the front. He helped us tie up alongside and said we were wrlcime to stay overnight. We onvly stayed long enough for a quick shop and to feed the black swans and we were off again.

Thank you - I'll bear that in mind!

[haggis]

There used to be black swans at Ratho on the Union canal in Scotland when Ronnie Rusack was mine host of the Bridge Inn

I hadn't seen a black swan since then till a few minutes ago when one popped his head in the side hatch while I was preparing dinner

We are moored at bridge 25 on the Trent and Mersey just past Willington

Haggis

[Drayke]

The black swans have been around for quite a few years now, they spend a lot of time in the Thames & Kennet Marina.

A lot of the boats moored outside Tesco have been there for quite some time, the one name Sullis has been moored up to the landing stage in the same spot since last year.

[Derek Porteous]

Sullis was the one we moored alongside. As I said the owner was a real gent (well to us anyway; occupying a visitor mooring berth for such a long time is another matter).

[Phil Ambrose]

There are breeding pairs on the Broads so they seem to be quite widespread though they do give ground to our home grown swans ( black swans hail from Australia)

Phil

[Jerra]

There are breeding pairs on the Broads so they seem to be quite widespread though they do give ground to our home grown swans ( black swans hail from Australia)

Phil

They are found in 111 10Km squares throughout the UK but mainly in England south of a line across from south Cumbria and mainly East of a line from the Lancashire Coast to the Dorset coast heading more of less due south. At least that was the situation during the 2007-11 survey for the BTO Bird Atlas. Iirc every tetrad (2Km x 2Km square) was surveyed 4 times over the years twice in "summer" and twice in "winter".

[magnetman]

I'm a bit surprised they haven't been stolen.

 

Would be a nice pair of birds to have on the lake at one's stately home

There were a couple on a lake near Stockers Lock in Rickmansworth about 10 years ago but I think someone lifted them.

[magnetman]

 

 

Do black swans have identification tags like the white ones have clamped onto one leg?

[Derek Porteous]

Didn't see any. Coincidentally the Swan Upping regatta passed through Reading today. Guess they are only interested in ringing Mute Swans abd black onescare ignored.

[Joe the plumber]

Am I alone in expecting this topic to be about a pub...?

[magnetman]

No

[dogless]

We did the K & A in 2012, and there was a huge group of black swans on the Kennet between the entrance and the first lock.

We were told they were resident in that area.

 

The Boiler Man's down that way. He'll know if they're still there.

 

Rog

[Jerra]

Do black swans have identification tags like the white ones have clamped onto one leg?

The ring "clamped" on the leg is put there by a licensed BTO trained ringer and is nothing to do with swan upping or them belonging to the queen etc. It is purely to enable the study of their lives. Incidentally if you see one with a large plastic ring and can read the number who ever put it there is usually grateful for a report via

 

http://app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/colourform.jsp?coord=colourmarkedwildfowl@wwt.org.uk

 

You will be informed (it may take a while) about the age sex and where the bird was rung.

 

I doubt there are any ringed Black Swans as firstly the population is so small and spread out and secondly they are either escapees or part of the population of alien species which most ringers won't be studying.

Am I alone in expecting this topic to be about a pub...?

NO I expected that when I first opened it.

[Derek Porteous]

Interesting, Jerra. What do the Swan Upping flotilla do on their annual cruise up the Thames.?We have been following them since Teddington. Have to confess to not seeing them with swans, but fellow boaters/moorers say they have been corralling young swans. Do they just count or do they ring as well?

[billS]

I wonder why we are not knee deep in swans. This is unresearched but from observation of our local pair, they mate for life and bring up on average 5 cygnets per year. The cygnets almost invariably survive till adulthood (unlike the local ducklings who have a high attrition rate) so our pair has produced 70 swans in the 14 years we have been watching them.

[Jerra]

Interesting, Jerra. What do the Swan Upping flotilla do on their annual cruise up the Thames.?We have been following them since Teddington. Have to confess to not seeing them with swans, but fellow boaters/moorers say they have been corralling young swans. Do they just count or do they ring as well?

It all started 3 or 4 centuries ago when swans in England were owned and not classed as wild.

 

The swans were caught as flightless young and the beaks marked to show ownership and in some cases pinioned so they couldn't fly away.

 

The Book "The Mute Swan in England: Its history and the ancient custom of swan keeping" by N. F. Ticehurst has 10 pages of diagrams showing historic marks (between 12 & 24 marks per page,

 

Current swan upping is I suspect merely pageantry marking history and I think is done in the name of the Queens swans or more probably somebody with the ancient tile something akin to "The Queen's Swan Master" but I am not up on pageantry.

 

They will probably count those they handle but unless there happens to be a licensed ringer among them no they won't be ringing.

[Jerra]

I wonder why we are not knee deep in swans. This is unresearched but from observation of our local pair, they mate for life and bring up on average 5 cygnets per year. The cygnets almost invariably survive till adulthood (unlike the local ducklings who have a high attrition rate) so our pair has produced 70 swans in the 14 years we have been watching them.

We are not knee deep in swans because less than half the cygnets survive their first 3 years and they aren't sexually mature until 4. The average life span of a mute swan is 10 years but the oldest (proven by ringing) so far is 29years 1 month 11 days.

 

In 2009 the summer population (resident birds was estimated at 6,000 pairs up about 5% over the last 40 years.

 

The winter population is in the region of 74,000 individuals.