My husband frequently passes a large flock of swans on his way to work in Southampton and a couple of days ago he saw two black swans in amongst the group. This was too good an opportunity to miss and as he saw them again early today, we went along late morning to have a look and sure enough there they were, in amongst the mute swans on the River Itchen. They were a little feisty now and again, pecking at other swans if they got too close to them but on the whole all was calm! I had a quick swan head count and there were about fifty, not bad for the centre of town.
I haven't seen black swans in the wild before, they were a bit smaller than the mute swans with curly tail and back wing feathers (there's probably a technical name for these wing feathers but I don't know it!)
Here they are showing off their very flouncy tail feathers, and don't those beaks look gorgeous, the red is unbelievably bright with a white stripe.
They were quite vocal and made a very odd noise, the one on the right is in the middle of making the said noise.
Showy!
Last years cygnets are still quite blotchy brown and white and some of them were......
......being picked on by the adults (front left!)
This is a relaxing spot, despite being on the edge of an industrial estate and it was well worth the visit today.
I looked black swans up in various different bird books without success (and where's Chris Packham when you need him!) so I then tried the internet where there was lots of information and there is a good RSPB article here (although it is a bit old, from 2007)
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