Bird plays chicken and narrowly avoids swan song

WHEN you’re a mute swan it’s hard to warn a motorist that they are about to instigate a reversal of fortune.

No amount of wing clapping or flipper stamping from our largest native bird was enough to prevent this happening yesterday at Bray harbour.

The voiceless bird almost broke into swan song, if you’ll pardon the seeming contradiction, when it found itself staring up the chassis of one reversing motorist.

Legend has it that the mute swan, Cygnus olor, is completely mute during its lifetime until the moment just before it dies, when it sings one beautiful song.

Fortunately, the bird in question never had to put the legend to the test when bystanders spotted the animal’s plight and stopped the car before it became flightlessly flattened.

An immediate rescue operation got underway and volunteers managed to lift the car sufficiently to make the swan free as a bird. The swan was then taken to the local vet in Bray where Pete Wetherburn stitched an injured wing and, having established there were no lasting effects, yesterday returned the bird to the briny.

Mute swans are common in almost all parts of the country and while yesterday’s experience was traumatic for the bird in question, in an earlier age it would not have been returned to the water, but probably kept to grace the Christmas dining table.