Follow google to Swan Upping. Swan Upping is not, as the name may imply, some ancient bestial (are birds beasts?) practice, but the practice of catching and counting the Swans with marked beaks, owned by specific guilds, and those with unmarked beaks which are owned by the Monarch. Also of course the cygnets belong to the marked parents have their beaks marked. Thinking about it, this refers to the Thames - I think some of the Oxbridge colleges own (and possibly eat) swans, and I think us lower classes [touch forelock emoticon] can own swans now as well.
No native pelicans in UK, as far as I know, but cormorants.
Indulge me a poem I know on cormorants, please, pretty please?
The common cormorant or shag, lays eggs inside a paper bag.
The reason you will see no doubt, is to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds, don't realise is that herds
of wandering bears may come with buns, and steal the bags to keep the crumbs.
Thank you.
Rod Ward
