Have you seen Crinkly the wobbly-necked swan? If you do spot him, please inform the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Despite his apparent handicap, Crinkly is expected to arrive in the UK any day, to spend the winter here with 3,500 or more other Bewick’s swans, an annual event sometimes referred to as a “swan fall”. . BBC
Australian black swans are spreading across Britain and threatening native white and mute swans. The birds have escaped from private collections and are now breeding at dozens of sites across the country. They are more aggressive, and they may “out compete” native swans for food and habitat in many areas. There may also be a problem of interbreeding. A BTO project found 500 reports of black swans, in at least 170 different locations around the UK. The black swan is currently not on the British List of birds, compiled by the BTO because the population was not considered to be self-sustaining at the last review. This may now change in the light of the new information. The black swan occurs naturally in western, eastern and southeastern Australia, Tasmania, and southern New Guinea. The Indepedent
For the next five days, swans along the Thames are being ringed as part of the annual swan upping event, an ancient ceremonial barking-mad oddity, but also today an an important conservation effort. The Guardian celebrates it in this editorial.
Also see this short video on swan-upping with a bunch of birders and toffs.