PHOTO OF THE DAY Blackbird-Turdus merula

Last night at almost midnight the most surreal and crazy event took place. Travelling home after a night out, as I approached my house past the local corner shop I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of a fully adult Mute Swan sitting on the grass verge by the telephone box. We are at least half a mile from any water course and smack in the middle of suburbia. There was no indication of how he got there he couldn’t have walked so I assume he landed. But how I don’t know. He was definitely not safe here, if he stayed there all night safely, he certainly would not have been safe in the morning as he was feet from a busy road and when daylight came he was going to make quite a disturbance and I think be in quite a large amount of distress and possible danger. I decided to take the situation in hand. I grabbed a coat and went to deal with the it. When I approached him calmly, he just got to his feet. My intention was to herd him to an area of grass a little more secluded and away from the centre of things, particularly the road. But when we got there he would not sit again and was obviously confused and disorientated. So I kept him walking for another 100 yards and eventually arrived at my doorstep. What a strange sight we must have been with him walking in front of me up the road. His feet slapped on the ground as he went and made quite a noise. It must have been a funny spectacle! So now, what was I to do. Well, I took the bull by the horns and just picked him up. He did not struggle at all. I held his neck just in case he had a peck at me. So, here I am now with a massive adult swan in my arms and stood in the hall of my house. I called my son Pete to get dressed and he was shocked and taken aback to see me with this massive bird that I was holding like a ventriloquists dummy.
Pete took the bird off me, we got in the car and I drove the mile or so to the nearby Alphinbrook Flood relief channel , the nearest watercourse. I put him down on the banks of the stream. Obviously , it was dark but he walked the few feet into the water. He looked at me and seemed relieved that I had delivered him to somewhere that he was more familiar with. He “wagged his till and ruffled us feathers and had a good shake down as birds do. I don’t think he was injured, no sign of injury to his legs or wings so I am presuming he just got lost and disorientated as night fell and made a few wrong choices! I certainly hope so. He was very heavy and had a beautiful almost red bill and a large black cere(the knob above the beak) which indicates a cob. At no time did he struggle, hiss or show distress which in it’s self is not normal behaviour I doubt. It would indicate that he was perhaps poorly in some way but there was no outward indication of that. I just hope he was safe in the end and didn’t become the fox’s dinner in the middle of the night! It was quite a privilege to be so close to him and be able to hold him and help in the way we did.