Royal swan count begins after species decline
David Barber, the King's Swan Marker, blamed the downturn in cygnet numbers primarily on outbreaks of Avian Influenza (bird flu). "Fortunately, there has been a decrease in reported cases of the disease in the River Thames area in recent months," he said. Young swans are weighed and measured by Mr Barber, who wears a feather in his cap, to make growth estimates, while cygnets and adult swans are examined for disease or injury.
Mr Barber: "Sadly, issues of vandalism and cruelty continue to cause distressing and often fatal injuries to swans and young cygnets."Dogs that are not under control also pose a significant risk of harm and death when in the vicinity of breeding swans and their young cygnets."Last year's Swan Upping found swans had been shot at by catapults and airguns.
Pollution was another problem, with some swans being found covered in engine oil.Mr Barber urged people to be aware of nesting environments when walking beside rivers. Swan upping started as a way of counting the birds that were valuable property - with any unmarked mute swans being Crown property.
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The Sun
8 minutes ago
- The Sun
I tested all the supermarket cinnamon swirls – the tasty winner was £1.20 cheaper than M&S
CINNAMON buns are rolling in the sweet taste of more success. Waitrose recently reported a surge of 381 per cent in online searches for them. 9 But if you don't want to pay over the odds for costly versions to go with your coffee in a shop, which supermarket 's version is best to enjoy at home? Laura Stott tucked into a selection and gives her verdict. Danish Cinnamon Whirl x 2 , Sainsbury's bakery, £1.75 SMELLING exactly as sweet and spiced as you want, sadly they are more like the Danish pastry part of their title than a traditional big bouncy bun. What you get is thinner and flatter puff pastry spirals with a brown sugar filling woven through. More cinnamon flavour would be welcome but what's there is evenly dispersed and the pastry is rich and buttery. Despite these positives, they seemed small compared to the others I tried and it is noticeable that they have no icing on top. Also very messy to eat as when you bite into it, the wheel shape quickly starts to unravel meaning your cake falls apart. Not very satisfying. Rating: 2/5 'You can spend just 1p in Lidl & get free food' savvy shopper says as she nabs a bakery treat without paying every time' The Cake Shop Cinnamon Buns x2, Morrisons, £2.39 VERY sweet and smothered with soft cheese icing. In fact, they are drizzled with so much topping, you can barely identify anything else. I like icing on top but this was too much for me. It was so abundant it had dripped all over the whole pastry as well as all over the packet. Not only did it make these exceedingly messy to eat but you could barely taste the cinnamon spice that should have been the star of the show. The bits of the cake I could taste were nice enough and they are a good size, raised in the middle with a very generous serving. But it was hard to get beyond the thick and gunky topping. Not cheap either, for supermarket own buns, these were noticeably pricey compared to others. Rating: 2/5 Cinnamon Buns x 2, Tesco, £1.80 VERY tasty buns from Tesco that are full of flavour. I thought they were just as enjoyable as anything you could buy from a fancy bakery. They are generous in size with lots of height and volume and covered in cream cheese icing. When you bite in they are soft, tasty and plump. There is also a visible amount of brown sugary cinnamon running throughout and plenty of topping – but it is not so much that the treats become sickly. They are very sweet but they look lovely and smell delicious. They are a great price, too. Impossible not to wolf down in one go. Perfect with a cup of coffee in the sunshine for the cafe experience without the inflated cost. Rating: 5/5 Cinnamon Buns x 2 Asda, £1.74 A LOVELY dark golden hue gives them that fresh bakery appeal that should start to make your mouth water. And when you tuck in, these are tasty, rich and generous with a generous portion of warming cinnamon filling, giving you a nice sugary hug for the ultimate comforting pick-me-up. Well balanced with a nice amount of icing which is plentiful enough to ensure the buns are sticky and gooey – and there was quite a lot of the icing still stuck to the packaging! I'd happily buy these again if I fancied something sweet. Very well priced too, these won't blow the budget. Rating: 4/5 Cinn-a-yum Buns x 6 M&S/ £3 I LIKED the tear-and-share style of these iced buns. They are smaller individually than others but they are designed to be bite-sized, it's not that you've been offered a stingy treat. The petite size makes them ideal for parties, or if you just want something sweet without indulging in a huge cake. The cinnamon gives a good hit of flavour and sweetness with the demerara sugar. But they were rather dry and not as sticky and gooey as I like. The icing wasn't great either, it felt like a bit of an afterthought that had been quickly added on top. Nice as a little treat, though, or for a change in place of a biscuit or pud. Rating: 2/5 The Daily Bakery Cinnamon Buns x2, Iceland, £1.50 REALLY well priced and they taste very good, too. If sweet and sticky is your idea of heaven, you will love these. Each one has loads of cinnamon powder sprinkled on top so you can really smell and taste the spice when you open the packet. Well-shaped buns that look very appetising and they don't disappoint. The pastry is rather dense but it is not to their detriment, it just makes them a bit more filling. Absolutely packed with cinnamon sugar filling too so you get your money's worth on the flavour and there was just enough icing to give the stickiness you want without being overwhelming and gunky. Very nice and extremely affordable. Rating: 4/5 Cinnamon Bun x 1, Lidl bakery, 79p DENSE and yeasty with plenty of appeal when you look at it too. Very sticky and a dark golden brown colour from a thick layer of cinnamon sugar which also gives a lovely fresh aroma. It tasted lovely and fresh, very treacly and rich with soft pastry and a crispy outer, alongside a plump bouncy feel in the mouth. Extremely generous in size with plenty of height and a very gooey and generous icing. This was probably the biggest bun of all the ones I tried so everything is amplified, from the amount of pastry on your plate to the cinnamon flavour in each bite. Perfect with a cuppa as a mid-afternoon pick me up. Rating: 4/5 Village Bakery Cinnamon Buns x 2, Aldi, £1.49 VERY bizarre buns. A bit different in style to most and I wasn't a huge fan of the change. They don't seem anything like traditional cinnamon buns – instead they resemble the soft wholemeal rolls you might make a cheese sarnie with. When you bite in, they are extremely sweet, heavily flavoured with cinnamon and a cream cheese American-style frosted filling. More like an iced bun, they are very sticky and sickly and I found the similarity to a brown bap a bit disconcerting. There's no textural notes either, everything is very mushy. Although they don't have the plate appeal, if it's just an affordable sticky sweet cinnamon treat you want, they'll do the job. Very filling, too.
The Sun
36 minutes ago
- The Sun
Horse racing tips: Grand National-winning trainer lines up this very appealing 10-1 chance
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Bicester Motion fire: Bikers ride in tribute convoy
More than 170 motorcyclists have paid tribute to two firefighters and a member of the public who died in a blaze at a business parkFirefighters Jennie Logan, 30, and Martyn Sadler, 38, along with father-of-two Dave Chester, 57, were killed in the fire that engulfed the Bicester Motion site on 15 enthusiast Rob Polland organised the Ride to Remember from Cherwell Valley services to Bicester town said the ride in convoy aimed to "bring the community together". Mr Pollard said the ride came about after he put the idea out to fellow motorcyclists on social media."The comments and support has been amazing," he said. "A lot of people have been affected by the fire - people have got involved from all parts of the UK."He said the mass ride had been a "special and memorable" event. The fire at Bicester Motion was reported at about 18:30 BST on 15 May and rapidly spread through a former aircraft hangar at the site on Buckingham Road, and a major incident was tribute after the fire, the family of Mr Sadler, who previously worked for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) and was also part of London Fire Brigade, said being a firefighter was "always in his blood", adding that he was "the true definition of a hero".The family of Ms Logan said her "bravery and fearlessness shone through right until the end".Mr Chester's family described him as "Bicester born and bred" with a "quirky sense of humour".Bicester Motion is home to more than 50 specialist businesses, focused on classic car restoration and engineering on the former site of RAF was the base of RAF Bomber Command in World War Two and became redundant in month police, fire and Health and Safety Executive investigation work at the scene concluded. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
