Female swan has been very ill and also lost her mate

More sad news comes to us from Jacky Sales about the Chiswick House swans.

She tells us that the female swan had become very poorly and couldn’t get out of the water for about 30 hours. After various attempts at getting help The London Wildcare Trust (www.riversideanimalcentre.org) collected her and took her from Chiswick House.

Jacky says;

''She was extremely poorly and it looked as if she wouldn’t make it.  They have done a barrage of tests on her and, due to her tagging, found out that she has had significant previous health problems and has been ‘in care’ before. 

''They said they hadn’t seen anything like it in all the years they have been looking after swans.

''Over the last three weeks she has recovered much better than we could have hoped and it is possible that she could come back to CH. as it is a sheltered and quiet environment. But, as the male swan has now been gone about 5 days the London Wildcare Trust can’t make any decisions because, if he returns with a mate she would be attacked and, possibly, killed and if he doesn’t come back it would be better to wait until after the breeding season and then get the Swan Sanctuary to give us another pair.

So no cygnets this year unfortunately.''

These images taken last year by Chiswick photographer American Grey show the adult swans and their babies venturing out onto the lake for the first time.

May 5, 2010