Mute swan (Cygnus olor) close up peering at camera, juvenile, Fife, Scotland, UK, November. Photographer quote: ""Sitting in a drainage ditch by a park pond to get eye-level with the local swans, it wasnt just passers-by that were giving me strange looks, this young swan decided I needed checking out."" Did you know? There are around 30,000 mute swans in Britain. Numbers have grown by over 40% since the 1980s thanks to improvements in the quality of Britains rivers.