No it’s not Australia, about 10 miles from where I live in South Devon there is a small seaside town called Dawlish and the town embalm is the black swan.
The small flock around 8 I think live on small brook that runs though the park in the centre of the town and out to sea under the railway line that runs along the coast from Exeter.
Anecdotally the swans were first introduced in the early 1900 by John Nash a local of Dawlish who moved to New Zealand and brought some swans back on one of his frequent visits back to his home town. Unfortunately the flock died out between the was and Dawlish was left without its flock. The current swans were reintroduced in 1940 by Captain CRS Pitman in memory of his parents and they came from a zoo in Sidney and have lived on the brook ever since.
They must be quite happy as they breed most years as you can see by the current batch of cygnets and the flock gets bigger all the time.
The town council is very proud of it’s swan population and have set up web cams so they can be monitored and protected the area where they nest and breed is also closed off during the spring so they birds are not disturbed.
So Hivers if you are ever down in Dawlish fora good old fashioned seaside holiday take a wander along the brook and take a look at the black Swans and other wild life in the brook.