Last summer on one of my many cycle trips along the Thames at Reading and saw a black swan. Swans are ten a penny in Reading, but this was the first black swan that I had seen around here.
Nothing unusual about that I hear you say, but when this one started courting with another passing swan I had the shock of my life. All of it's flight feathers were white. This was something so completely new to me, I had never seen these markings before and I haven't seen this swan since. A real shame as it was so gorgous. Has anyone else ever seen a swan like this?
Unfortunately, we only had a point and shoot camera with us, so the photo's not great...
its a Black Swan, from Australia. It will be an escape. Or descended from one.
Apparently it's be omened to be a bad summer as the first swans to hatch at Abbotsbury were black ones...
As I'm writing this, they've just announced it's due to get a lot hotter...