If only this mongrel swan could talk

I RECEIVED an email this week about a mongrel swan in Cork. It came from an unlikely source, Maria Weiloch, a swan expert at the Gdansk Ornithological Station.

Piotr Tadeusz, a Polish birdwatcher living in Ireland, had sent her photographs of a strange-looking swan “on a small lake between Waterford and Middleton”. Piotr couldn’t name the location, so I rang Cork ornithologist Pat Smiddy. It turns out that the bird has been around for some time; Pat had recorded two strange young swans at Loughaderra, near Castlemartyr, in May 2006. One of them disappeared the following July. The other, Piotr’s bird, stayed on.

The familiar resident of Irish rivers and ponds is known as the “mute” swan. Adults have an orange-red bill and a black knob, known as a “berry”, on the forehead. When the bird is swimming, its tail points upwards. Another swan, the whooper, visits Ireland in winter. It keeps a low profile and is not well known to the public. The bill is black and yellow. There is no berry and when the bird is swimming, the tail curves downwards. Whoopers “honk” loudly.