Refugees from Devon or further afield?

A pair of black swans on the water meadows at Stoborough, just south of Wareham.

These are not native European birds, their principal habitat is Australia. Research reveals is that there is a colony of black swans in Dawlish, Devon; perhaps this couple thought that Purbeck would provide a more comfortable home. But where have our local swans gone?


PHOTOGRAPHIC CONSIDERATIONS

Photographing white swans is tricky enough, but a doddle when compared with black swans as photographic subjects.

To the human eye, when the sun is shining (as it was this morning) a black swan is a black blob with minimal differentiation of the detail of its features apart from its redness of eye and beak.

Digital retrieval of the detail, if achieved, results in the swan looking a very dark blue. That is a compromise which I am happy to live with.