Swans
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Some years ago local charity Swan Watch (Swans in Need) increased how much and how often it feeds our swans.
The council values the swans highly, and does not wish to lose the swans, or prevent members of the public from feeding them. But feeding them with many buckets of grain, several times a day, all year round, on the greensward and foreshore, has had serious environmental consequences.
The overfeeding has attracted over 300 Canada geese. The massed birds are destroying the greensward and river bank, fouling the pavement and becoming a danger to traffic and pedestrians. Swan Watch has spent a great deal of its own money shoring up parts of the greensward which the birds have destroyed. The charity regularly leaves buckets of water for the swans when there is a freshwater stream within yards of their feeding site. The grain and bread it leaves out also attract increasing numbers of rats.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
On advice from English Nature and the RSPB, Mistley Parish Council and Tendring District Council have asked Swan Watch to FEED ONLY IN THE WATER immediately, and not leave feed in buckets or on land. Swan Watch has been asked to gradually reduce the feeding so that eventually the swans will only be fed in winter and severe weather.
This is because, while healthy swans will feed in the water and on land, the geese will only feed on land. If the birds are fed in the water only, as in the past, we can keep our swans and encourage the geese to return to their normal migratory pattern. The greensward on the Walls (which the council has a duty to maintain) will also be able to regenerate and become a pleasant place to visit once more.
THE COST TO YOU
Your council tax goes towards the maintenance of the riverbank by the shelter, which has been badly eroded by the birds moving up and down it since Swan Watch started feeding there. While Swan Watch has paid for two area of the bank to be rebuilt, this is already proving inadequate, as grass has not grown back and the bank is still being eroded further along.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Carry on bringing down your stale crusts for the swans, but please only feed them in the water as they can choke on dry food. Good places are either at the small stream on the Walls by the Hopping Bridge, or from Mistley Quay. But please don't feed the swans from inside your car, as they cause mess and obstruction on the pavement, and it encourages them into the road.
WANT TO COMMENT?
Email richard@ling44.fsnet.co.uk
Swan Watch can be contacted on 01206 397251
