Shortfinals – aviation and more!

By: shortfinals

Jan 11 2011

Tags: 'Atlantic Flyway Plan', 'decorative' wildfowl, 'Leda and the Swan', 'Swan Lake', 'The Swan of Avon', 000+ Mute Swans, 1910-1912, 1981, 2005, 43, ballet, Barry, Bewick's Swan, bread, British Isles, catch and ring, Chesapeake Bay, City of London, Cold Knap Lake, cygnet, cygnets, Cygnus bewickii, Cygnus columbianus, Cygnus cygnus, Cygnus olor, eastern England, escapes from zoos and public parks, European culture, grains, grasses, graze on grasses, Great Britain, grey fluffy down, imported into the USA, insects, invasive species, Maryland, mate for life, Mediaeval, Mediaeval guilds, Mid-Wales, Middle Ages, molluscs, mountainous Mid-Wales, nobility, non-tidal portion of the Thames, non-tidal Thames, Northern Scotland, not an ideal food for swans, open water in England and Wales, over-wintering Tundra Swans, Pennsylvania, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Queen's Marker of the Swans, ramshackle nest, River Nene, River Ouse, River Thames, skiff, sonnet, South Wales, Sovereign, specific locations in the UK, surveys, Swan Masters, swan populations, Swan-Upping, Teddington Lock, the moorland areas of south-western England, third week of July, treasured food of the nobility, Tundra Swan, Upper Thames, Vale of Glamorgan, Virginia, Wales, Warden of the Swans, water weeds, weeds, Whistling Swan, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Wildlife & Countryside Act, Wildlife & Countryside Act of 1981, William Butler Yeats, William Shakespeare, Worshipful Company of Dyers, Worshipful Company of Vintners

Category: animals, British Isles, England, Great Britain, Plants, Royalty, Scotland, United States, Wales

Leave a comment

William Shakespeare was known as ‘The Swan of Avon’; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’ is a ballet of immense importance; ‘Leda and the Swan’ is a sonnet by William Butler Yeats, acknowledged as a masterpiece – all these artistic works suggest the way that the swan, and particularly the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor), has permeated European culture for thousands of years.

Living in Great Britain means that, for many, the Mute Swan is the largest bird that will be seen.  Although there are other significant swan species in the British Isles – the Whistling Swan (Cygnus columbianus) and Bewick’s Swan (Cygnus bewickii) often thought of as being one species, known as the Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus), and the Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) – these tend to be much less common, and tend to be confined to specific locations in the UK. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust undertakes surveys of the swan populations in the UK every five years. Data from the last survey available (2005) indicates that there were 7,216 Bewick’s Swans (with 79% being found close to the Rivers Ouse and Nene in eastern England), 6,480 Whooper’s Swans, and no less than 43,000+ Mute Swans (these particular Mute Swans are at Cold Knap Lake, in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales).

The Mute Swan is (like all other swans) protected under the Wildlife & Countryside Act of 1981. It breeds almost everywhere, with the exception of the moorland areas of south-western England, the mountainous parts of Mid-Wales and extreme Northern Scotland. The swan tends to mate for life, and builds a ramshackle nest close to water. Cygnets are covered in grey, fluffy down, and share their parents diet of water weeds, molluscs and insects. They will graze on grasses, as will other swans and geese, and eat grains (they, of course, eat bread if it is offered to them, but it is not an ideal food for swans).

Swans were a treasured food of the nobility during the Middle Ages; indeed, the Sovereign retains ownership of ALL swans on open water in England and Wales, but only exercises the right to count, mark and examine young swans on the Upper Thames. Two other bodies share in the task of ‘swan-upping’, the Worshipful Company of Vintners and the Worshipful Company of Dyers,which takes place each year on Monday in the third week of July, on the non-tidal portion of the Thames above Teddington Lock. Both the Dyers and the Vintners are Livery Companies of the City of London, and have their roots in Mediaeval ‘guilds’ dating back to the Middle Ages. Their Swan Masters are rowed in skiffs, along with the Queen’s Marker of the Swans and her Warden of the Swans, and catch and ring, where appropriate, the young swans.

Because the Mute Swan is so beautiful, it has been used as a ‘decorative’ wildfowl abroad – around 500 Mute Swans were imported into the USA between 1910-1912, and escapes from zoos and public parks were inevitable. Their fecundity is such that they have become a danger to many local ecosystems. Indeed, they have spread rapidly throughout the Chesapeake Bay area to the point where Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia either classify them as an invasive species or allow them to be hunted. There is also an ‘Atlantic Flyway Plan’, designed to prevent them competing with local over-wintering Tundra Swans, whose numbers are down by 40%.

http://bit.ly/TPMFund