Swans nesting in plastic litter at Haslam Park duck pond

Swans are nesting in plastic at the duck pond at Haslam Park.
Swans settling down their cygnets for an afternoon nap in Haslam Park.
Pic: Corinne CraggSwans settling down their cygnets for an afternoon nap in Haslam Park.
Pic: Corinne Cragg
Swans settling down their cygnets for an afternoon nap in Haslam Park. Pic: Corinne Cragg

Plastic rubbish is strewn around the pond because families feeding ducks leave their bags behind.

The Friends of Haslam Park group hosted a clean up of the water on Saturday, January 26 to clear the pond.

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Chairman of the friends group Christopher Smith said: “We have quite a large duck pond in the park which is great.

It attracts lots of families who come to feed the birds. Unfortunately one of the by-products of that is that people tend to bring their bread in plastic bags.

“People come along, they get a bag of bread to feed the ducks and either they leave it or the bag gets blown away.

“There’s a lot of plastic in the lake. It gets stuck in the cascade that takes the excess water from the lake to the Savick Brooke.

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“We have swans that nest on the lake and when we examine their nests the birds actually use the plastic because it’s so prevalent.

“The people on Saturday were removing the plastic waste from the lake.

“We obviously want to encourage children and families to come along and feed the ducks. It would be better to feed them with seed because that’s more natural food for them. If people bring large amounts of bread and it isn’t used it also attracts rats.

“We realised the lake had an issue with plastic waste so that’s why the clean up was organised. We’d rather not have to collect material like that.

“We would rather reduce the use of plastic.”