Family under stress

The early morning walks are on a back burner for a while as we have a Book and Arts Festival starting today until Sunday.

I went to the harbour at lunchtime to see our local bird man, 'Joe' out on one of the river islands where our resident swans nest. I could see him pick up a white swan and shoo our resident population away. I then saw a very thin and tired swan heading downriver with the resident parents in hot pursuit biting and pecking at its rear end. They herded it into the harbour where they trapped it up against the wall and started some close quarter bullying. I managed to get down the harbour steps. The bullied swan came to the indent in the wall, climbed the first 3 steps and managed to get past me. I was now between the resident pair and the interloper. She was in a very bad condition and appeared to be starving. Joe eventually caught up and looked over the edge. We decided to use his holdall, capture the swan and keep it in there until we got it back to his place. It seemed to sense it was now safe and relaxed in in the holdall. Joe made the phonecall to the Wildlife rescue and I managed to get this shot of the resident family still showing signs of stress.

Nature in the raw can be very cruel. We suspect that the swan was one of last years brood who came back to her family looking for help but the parents will prioritise to this years brood and will not tolerate any interlopers.

A usefull number for your mobiles if your find an animal that needs help:-
03000 999999