{"id":688882,"date":"2026-07-13T07:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688882\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T07:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:47:09","slug":"rise-hoped-in-swan-numbers-despite-winter-bird-flu-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688882\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise hoped in swan numbers despite winter bird flu outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said cygnets faced a difficult start in life, with risks from predators like birds of prey, foxes and dogs, as well as disease and pollution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Members of the public who monitor the location of swans local to them are &#8220;a great help to the swan population&#8221;, he added. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Swan Upping dates back to the 12th century and takes place every year during the third week of July. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Six traditional rowing skiffs will travel the Thames over five days, with the Swan Marker&#8217;s team counting, weighing and examining swans and cygnets for injury or disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">All cygnets are fitted with a British Trust for Ornithology ring, allowing their movements to be traced in future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Primary schools along the route are again expected to visit this year, giving pupils the chance to see cygnets up close and learn about swan ecology. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This year&#8217;s Swan Upping runs from Monday until Friday, passing through Windsor, Marlow, Henley, Reading and Wallingford before finishing in Abingdon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said cygnets faced a difficult start in life, with risks from predators like birds of prey, foxes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-688882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}