Swan and chips

Spent the day on the River Avon looking at mink rafts among other things. These are not designed to give mink a Huckleberry Finn adventure. Initially they're intended to find out whether mink are in the vicinity. A basket covered with a layer of clay is placed in a tunnel on the raft and if the paw prints reveal a mink in the neighbourhood a trap is placed on the raft.

Any mink caught in the trap is shot with an air pistol using a pointed round. The game conservancy people who worked on the method used a Yellow Pages directory to test the penetration of the round. "The blunt round reached chartered accountants," said the officer showing us the trap. "But the pointed one got as far as Estate Agents."

I saw a mink the other day on the River Wey. Should it suffer the same fate as the estate agents? It's tough for the mink but the presence of mink is tough for our water voles that have been disappearing at an alarming rate.

Apparently the notion that otters drive off any mink is a myth. They can and do co-exist together on a number of rivers.

There was a discussion also on swans. There's been a problem with swans on some chalk streams such as the River Wylye. I've seen great gangs of them in the fields. These are non-breeding birds that have molted their flight feathers. The eat large amounts of ranunculus that provides habitat for the insects on which trout feed. More than that, the weed helps to maintain water levels.

I remember when swan populations were declining 30 years ago when lead shot was allowed among anglers. Since its ban the swan population has made a dramatic recovery. Personally I'd be happy to see some of them farmed for food. I had some swan once and it was very good meat.

But I suppose it would be unpopular. It's a beautiful bird, granted, but ducks and pheasant are beautiful too and we eat them. As it is, a lot of swan eggs are pricked on the QT by river keepers. But that seems wasteful. Swan and chips. Why not? Then again, maybe estate agents would be more palatable.