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If you’re stuck at home and looking for something to lift your spirits, The Bishop’s Palace in Wells, Somerset, has got just the thing to cheer you up.

Their extremely popular Swan Cam has just gone live. With infra-red capability, the Swan Cam runs 24 hours a day and is trained on the nest made by Grace and Gabriel, the Palace Swans.

Grace has now laid 8 eggs in her nest and is settling down to incubate them over the next few weeks. The incubation period usually lasts for around 5 weeks and fans of Swan Cam compete to be the first to spot a cygnet emerging each year.

Lucky, last year’s cygnet is still on the moat, but is getting more independent day by day.  Dad, Gabriel, has become rather more insistent with his encouragement to leave the moat over recent days!

To watch Swan Cam, viewers should head to the home page of The Bishop’s Palace website,www.bishopspalace.org.uk, and scroll down to the “Latest Videos” section at the bottom.

THE PALACE SWANS General Information
The tradition of Swans on the Moat at The Bishop’s Palace in Wells is thought to go back to the 1850’s when it is likely that a Bishop’s daughter first taught the swans to ring a bell at the Gatehouse for food.  There are now two swan bells - one just beneath the window on the left of the Gatehouse, the other to the right - both with a rope hanging down for the swans to pull.

The Palace welcomed a new swan pair to the Palace moat in Spring 2019, thanks to Swan Rescue South Wales. The former swan pair, named Bryn and Wynn, were long-standing and much-loved, and sadly left in 2018. Bryn, the cob, passed away in April 2018, and Wynn, the pen, departed from the Moat, along with her four remaining cygnets, in October 2018.

It is thought that the family group headed off to the Somerset Levels, a popular site for groups of swans. Wynn returned to the moat for a brief period in January 2019, before
leaving again. 

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