SWAN SORROW: Black swan passes away

bird-sightings-black-swanOne of campus’ rare Black Swans has sadly passed away.

The male swan was at least 17 years old and had been a resident on campus for over a decade, originally arriving in 2001.

The Black Swan is an introduced species and is currently not considered to be a self-sustaining species in the UK. In the year the male swan arrived the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust recorded just nine breeding pairs of swans in the entire country

Our Black Swan is not the only exotic waterfowl on the lake since a pair of Ruddy Shellduck’s were donated by the York Annual Fund in 2009.