Feeding the Swans and Ducks

It has been another beautiful day again in Christchurch after a heavy frost. I took a walk around Swan Lake as I had never been there before and my Aunty Nancy told me I must go and have a look, just before she passed away. She was amazed I had never heard of it before. So today day in memory of Aunty Nancy I visited this beautiful spot.

I did try to find out about Swan Lake but didn't come up with any history of the gardens and lake. The homestead is being used as a Thai Healthcare Spa and also as a Wedding Venue. As I was walking around a family started to feed the swans and ducks and it wonderful just watching them.

The mute swan is one of seven swan species found world–wide and was introduced to New Zealand from 1866. It maintains a tenuous hold in the wild on wetlands in Hawke’s Bay, North Canterbury and lake Ellesmere. Some live in a semi–feral state in town parks. They once numbered several hundred in the wild but the April 1968 Wahine storm destroyed much of their feeding habitat in their stronghold at Lake Ellesemere and the popluation crashed. There are now perhaps only 100 in the wild.

In New Zealand it is a protected introduced species. Its natural range is northern Eurasia from Great Britain to eastern Russia. The lifespan of the swan can be up to 25 years, but in the wild some only survive for five or six years. Some of the reasons for this can be collisions with powerlines, attacks by dogs, lead poison from digesting fishing weights, lead shot from ducks that have died and rotted in lakes after being shot, and botulism.
For more information on the Mute Swan.