— Lake
Nearly all postcards of the Lake feature swans, and sometimes cygnets. Yet we haven't had any for several years, except the occasional individual scouting for good nesting sites.
The last swan, I have heard, had to be put down a few years ago because it had been attacked by a dog.
What happened to them? Why? Can they be encouraged back?
Soe argue that the problem is the barrier now created between the two pools - swans are very heavy birds, reluctant to fly short distances or even walk across from one pool to the other.
Other theories? Displacement by Canada Geese? Lack of suitable food?
MEN with ropes will set out today, to try to catch Bill, the "killer" swan of Wandsworth Common, London.
For twenty-five years Bill has reigned over the pond on the Common — but recently he has been terrorising his kingdom by killing ducks, driving off other birds and attacking dogs. Now he even scares children, say Wandsworth park officials . . .
Swan that turned killer
MEN with ropes will set out today, to try to catch Bill, the "killer" swan of Wandsworth Common, London. For twenty-five years Bill has reigned over the pond on the Common — but recently he has been terrorising his kingdom by killing ducks, driving off other birds and attacking dogs. Now he even scares children, say Wandsworth park officials.
Park Superintendent Henry Davies said last night: "We have tried to coax him near enough to grab him, but he hisses, flaps his wings and makes off. As he packs a knockout blow in each wing, we have to be careful. "
Bill, now under sentence of death, turned "killer" after his mate was stoned to death some years ago, say park attendants.
[BNA: Link]
But Bill wasn't the first swan to cause concern.
"It is . . . to be feared that the slaughter of innocent young ducks will go on."
Something will have to be done about it, say the people who live opposite the swan pond at Wandsworth Common. A few of these good people have already done something — they have written to the County Council, but that body is too busy — considering plans for the reduction of the rates — to suggest any practical measures for the relief of residents of Bolingbroke-grove.
It is, therefore, to be feared that the slaughter of innocent young ducks will go on.
The slaughterer is a singularly ferocious swan, who has it into his head that the pond belongs to him, and to his spouse, and that all other feathered creatures who venture thereon are trespassers asking for extermination.
According to the testimony of eyewitnesses, the swan grips the ducklings by the neck and holds them under water till they are drowned.
The idea of drowning a duck would not occur to the average human being, but swans seem to have an uncanny instinct.
Public opinion in the neighbourhood favours the ducks. Men, armed with sticks, endeavour to protect them from the murderous malice of the swan, and old ladies call out from bedroom windows.
In spite of these heroic measures, the fate of the ducklings will be sealed unless the County Council comes to the rescue..
[BNA: Link]
DUCKS ON THE POND
POND
LAKE
LCC
SWANS
ICE
SNOW
FOG
South Western Star — Friday 26 November 1920
(Click on image to enlarge)
FOG AND FROST.
This week we had weather enough to fill an almanac. "It may be remembered" — it may also be happily forgotten — that Monday opened with a fog, the like of which has seldom been felt or tasted in daylight. Nothing could be seen but a blank mass of dark grey, seemingly impenetrable. You had to push your way through it, risk the consequences. Fortunately these were not disastrous, thanks to the care taken by everybody and to the restraint of the people who took pains not to walk unperceived into shops and there serve themselves with bargains on credit.
Trains, tram. and bus services were for the most part suspended or held up. The roads were almost empty. At Battersea Rise we heard a voice condoling with a horse — " Jimmy, my boy, we've got out. Goodness knows how we shall ever get back the stable again."
At wide intervals buses went forth — by companies — four 77's at a time, 308 in all. Though the sun struggled out at noon and after a while drove the fog away, the entanglement of traffic continued. At night the 19 buses lost themselves and were not for a season.
[PB: We still have the 77 bus, but the 19 has been renumbered the 219.]
From Monday on frost and mist have prevailed. The frost has bitten deep. It has coated the paths and roads with crystally rime so thick that it crunched pleasantly under one's foot and made one think of the joys depicted on the pre-war Christmas cards. Ponds on the commons were coated with ice as early as Sunday morning and as late as Thursday night.
In anticipation of Christmas the County Council have stocked some of these ornamental waters with feathered fowl, ranging from gulls to swans.
The frost was a great surprise to the pheasant-coloured ducks [PB: presumably female mallards]. They stood moping on the ice, their necks drawn down between their shoulders and their sheeny green heads held on one side. The leader of the tribe has for aome dove been pondering over the riddle of the universe and has not solved it. A gull silently derided the profound thinker.
To the swans the ice on Wandsworth Common pond was a personal affront. It prevented them from getting at the policeman who stood by the rails and smiled provokingly. Again and again father swan, swimming across a square yard of open water, tried to act as ice-breaker but each time he pulled up with a thud.
One of the unemployed — unfeathered and nestless — made remarks.
"You'd go for him if you could, wouldn't you, old man? You've got a grudge against the pleece."
He explained why.
"When they (the swans, not the police) was anesting on the island the night duty men used to shine the bull's eye on 'em. Lumme he ain't never forgot it."
[BNA: Link]
[Interesting. Notice the rather facetious reference to an unemployed man, and the presence of police on the Common day and night.]
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