Black Swan? (1 Viewer)

Not that I'm a sucker for controversy or anything, but I'm going to have another go. This time with terrible pictures from the off.

Just been over my local park (Harrow Lodge in Essex) to feed the ducks and seen, among other things, a Black Swan on the main lake. I'm under no illusions that this is wild, but it's still a rather cool sight. It wasn't taking bread from the hand as such, but it was as tame as the rest of the Wildfowl and kept getting chased off by a particularly grumpy Mute Swan in display mode.

There was some white on the bill, but that hasn't come out particularly well in these pictures. In the first one the white is hidden by what I assume is a piece of bread, while in the second it very conveniently put its buill underwater. A little bit of white is still showing.

See below for the aforementioned terrible pictures. They leave no doubt as to the species, while making correct identification of the KIND of Black Swan completely impossible.

In other news, and following the trend of captives that I can't tick showing up and displaying well, I saw 3 ravens around the Tower of London - 2 out by the main road and one trying to perch next to the river. Great birds. I like to see it as an opportunity to see them close up, so that when I do see a wild one I've got their looks and behaviour down pat.

Black Swans do breed in small numbers in the uk but are not yet thought to be self sustaining so are not on the official british list (at least they weren't). I guess all black swans are originally from collections unless they have flown from Australia.

The decision with Black Swans not being on the official list can't last for much longer - there's gotta more breeding pairs of these than WT Eagles in Britain (I know at least 5 pairs in Sussex alone that have bred successfully for a number of years now) and as for fact we can tick Golden Pheasants seems so contradictory

I've never heard of a black swan in Harrow Lodge, and I've certainly never seen on in the immediate area, so at least it made its way there under its own power - without any definitive proof its an escape you may as well tick it... Depending on your consience, of course

birdboybowley said:

The decision with Black Swans not being on the official list can't last for much longer - there's gotta more breeding pairs of these than WT Eagles in Britain (I know at least 5 pairs in Sussex alone that have bred successfully for a number of years now) and as for fact we can tick Golden Pheasants seems so contradictory

Click to expand...

Interesting, hadn't realised they were a breeding species here, had one back in January in a flash pool in Dumfries and Galloway, better hang on to the record for a future armchair tick then. :smoke: