Hundreds of swan missing because of fuel leakage

Lucas Gan

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I live by the riverbank in Shepperton. My wife recently found there are no more swans on the water. There were hundreds of swans there all-time between the Shepperton lock to Sunbury lock. So my wife called The Swan Sanctuary in Shepperton today. They said one of the reasons they moved maybe because there was some fule leakage recently happened near the Anglers restaurant water area caused pollution. So the swan doesn't like it, then most of them moved!

So now I can only see a few swans on the water! That is very sad!
 
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Outinthedinghy

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It seems likely to me that the swans move to places where people feed them.

If there was a Riverside pub which attracted a lot of people feeding swans then suddenly the pub closed (covid?) and the food stopped appearing then the swans will disperse and find food elsewhere.



Edited to add:

As a long time boater on the Thames and also on canals I have observed this phenomenon in a lot of different places. One of the strangest ones was a place near Southall on the Paddington arm of the Grand Union. It's a bit of a hellhole around there but there was large scale dumping of bread products in the canal, so the swans turned up. There were loads of them. I never saw anyone feeding them but did observe vehicles stopping and sacks full of bread dumped into the canal.



Don't forget the two critical things with swans. They need to eat and they can fly.
 

billskip

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When I lived in Shepperton, a property with river frontage,the swans, ducks and the muscovy ducks would come up the garden and peck at the windows for food and attention.
One day I left the doors open and you can imagine the damage a swan does when it flaps is wings in you lounge
 

Lucas Gan

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I think I found why so many swans move out of the water in front of my house. It's because a very strong swan controlling the territory not allowing others to get close. The strong swan attack others swan who want to get close. Hundred of swans run away because of this. No single swan will fight back. I saw this happens many times. It just happened again just now. While I feeding them, the strong swan comes from far away and attacked, then all swans run away.
 
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billskip

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I think I found why so many swans move out of the water in front of my house. It's because a very strong swan controlling the territory not allowing others to get close. The strong swan attack others swan who want to get close. Hundred of swans run away because of this. No single swan will fight back. I saw this happens many times. It just happened again just now. While I feeding them, the strong swan comes from far away and attacked, then all swans run away.
His names not Richard is it?
 
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