{"id":782110,"date":"2026-09-25T11:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782110\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:26:13","slug":"three-swans-found-dead-at-workington-nature-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782110\/","title":{"rendered":"Three swans found dead at Workington nature reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  All three adult birds were found dead over three consecutive days, between September 5 and 7, at Siddick Ponds, a nature reserve near Workington.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A long-time visitor to the site said: &#8220;Three swans dead in three days.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Although you do get occasional swan deaths, to have this many in three days is not normal.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I have been going to this pond for over 20 years to feed and check on all the birds.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I discussed this at length with a fellow birdwatcher as we were really upset and concerned as to what could have happened.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The witness said: &#8220;We considered foul play or mink.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We ruled out bird flu as it doesn\u2019t appear to be around at the moment.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The individual contacted DEFRA, who advised them to notify the local council, which they have now done.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A dead swan on the pond (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Workington Nature Partnership manages Siddick Ponds. The partnership is a joint venture between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsandstar.co.uk\/topics\/cumberland-council\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cumberland Council<\/a> and Workington Town Council.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A spokesperson for Workington Nature Partnership said: &#8220;We are aware of the recent deaths of at least two swans at Siddick Ponds.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;While the causes of their deaths are still unclear, initial inspections show no obvious signs of injury, cruelty or attack.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Investigations are being carried out to ascertain the cause of death.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We are keeping a close eye on the remaining swans and other wildlife on the nature reserve and would like to remind visitors that they should not touch any dead, injured or sick birds and they should refrain from entering the water.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;All dogs should be kept on a lead around the nature reserve and also should not be allowed to enter the water.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Anyone with any further information should contact the Workington Nature Partnership directly.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Additional concerns have been raised about mink predation, with a birdwatcher reporting a mink dragging off a cygnet by the throat &#8220;about three weeks ago.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The birdwatcher also said at least four &#8220;very young&#8221; cygnets have also been killed in recent weeks.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The regular visitor called for greater attention from the council, suggesting that mink control and the installation of cameras could help protect wildlife and deter fly-tipping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All three adult birds were found dead over three consecutive days, between September 5 and 7, at Siddick&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-782110","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\/782110","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=782110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}