Wild Barley

It was not what I expected on a Sunday morning dog walk. Knowing the heat of the day was to come, I headed out earlyish to walk Barley. All was normal as I wandered down the long grass of Melford Common, down the gentle slope that leads to a small road that splits the field in two. It wasn’t until I crossed that road and came to the lower part of the common that I saw them. Three Mute Swans standing in the field a fair distance from the river.

It’s not the first time. I distinctly remember a warm evening many years ago, getting onto the common and seeing a police car moving slowly down the adjacent road, silent but with blue lights flashing. Further investigation that day led us to find a police officer trying to herd a Mute Swan off the road, although where too we never did find out. On explaining to the officer that we catch and monitor the local swans, she was only too happy to let us catch the bird and return it to the river, with a ring attached.

The event always sticks in my head not least as the last thing you expect to see is a police car herding a swan but also because Lee confidently stated that swans are not usually going to hurt you (everyone always regurgitates that they can break your arm with their wings and yes they could if you are old or young) only to be whacked on the elbow and given a dead arm, all the while grinning like their was nothing wrong for the benefit of the police officer who had openly admitted she was frightened of swans. Just goes to show we always must be careful when handling birds and believe me, Lee and I are.

This morning, there was no police car, just three swans standing in a grassy open area surrounded by roads and houses with the river at the bottom of the slope. There were, however, a lot of dog walkers around taking advantage of the cooler morning, and my fear was that one of these birds was either going to get attacked by a dog or pushed onto the road.

Closer inspection (with my dog on a short lead and who is trained to be around birds) revealed they were all colour ringed. I know who these were. Two birds stood close together, C9 and FN, two non breeders who had spent the summer floating around near Butten Island in the centre of town, chilling with a couple of other young birds and trying to avoid CA who holds the territory in front of what was the Argos store. C9 and FN have now been seen together a lot, and it may be that they have paired and will look for a breeding territory next year. For now, though, they look to avoid the held territories in Thetford.

The other bird was IS, originally found on the river near the garden centre at Kilverstone, this bird and its partner IN moved down river and into B7 and A9’s territory last winter, causing havoc with that pair. It turns out the reason they moved was that a new pair of birds had moved into the territory at Kilverstone.

IS and IN were not successful in raising any young this summer but spent their time patrolling the stretch of river alongside Arlington Way. IN, however, had recently been taken into care, leaving IS to patrol and protect the territory on its own. Not that it seems to have stopped them.

So here they all were halfway up the common and not showing any signs of heading back. What I suspect had happened is that C9 and FN found themselves in IS territory, possibly having looked to get away from CA. IS not being happy with this, chased them out of the river, and then up the common for good measure. Whether she (or he) would have made her way back to the river, I am not sure, but given the location and the number of dogs, it was obvious that a bit of encouragement was needed. Knowing the river at the bottom of the field was IS territory, I made the decision to slowly walk her back down the field first. So we began a slow procession down the field, me and Barley far enough away to keep her walking and not too close to spook her. We made slow and steady progress.

Just as we got to the bridge over the river, she slowed, not liking to walk through the narrow gap of the bridge walls. However, the easiest access for the river was on the other side, and with a bit of patience and gentle encouragement, she started moving again. It was then that I heard the distinctive wing beats, thwumping sounds of swans in flight and looking back and up I saw C9 and FN come careening towards the trees that grow closer together at this end of the common. Wincing I watched one crash into the canopy, crumpling to the ground, and the other tumble to the ground, narrowly avoiding the trees. There was a moment, a pause, and then fortunately both got up and started walking towards me and the bridge. I let out a sigh of relief that they were both seemingly OK. Someone or possibly a dog must have spooked them up on the common.

Now I was a swan sandwiched, flanked in front by IS and behind by C9 and FN. It felt like being a referee or riot police keeping two gangs apart to prevent and all out fight. I kept on with my mission and slowly walked IS over the bridge, down the bank and into the water where she paddled off, wagging her tail from side to side. One down. But now what to do with the other two.

Walking back to the pair, I looked past them at the common and realised them moving on was just in time. The first lorry of a travelling fair had just rolled onto the common in the exact spot where all three birds had just been standing.

Well, at least I didn’t have to walk back up to get them. The pair sat down and settled, taking a break, just by the bridge, and I wondered what to do. If I put them into the river in all likelihood, IS was going to chase them off again, but they couldn’t stay where they were. As I stopped to think I looked down to see IS steaming up river to the small weir, feathers puffed out and lifted in aggression. Above the weir, I could see why. The new Kilverstone Pair and their three cygnets had come all the way down and were milling around just above the weir, and IS was not happy. At one point, the male of the pair came down the weir, and then there was a bit of confrontation. But this is clearly the border between the two territories, and he quickly retreated, rather ungainly so, back up the weir and away, to continue the stand off at a safer distance.

My feeling at this point was that I didn’t really want to put C9 and FN into this mix. With IS still riled up. I didn’t want them chased back out, potentially onto the road or into the path of more dog walkers or even the arriving fair.

So I called in the cavalry, and Lee arrived with his swan kit and kids in tow.

Positioning ourselves around them the plan was to catch one first and try to prevent the other from disappearing, so we could then catch that one too. The first bit went fine, and we caught C9. What we didn’t expect was for FN to jump up onto the bridge wall and launch itself into the river below. Fortunately, it’s not that far, and it landed amongst the reeds. At this point, IS had disappeared down river to the other side of the foot and road bridge and was busily preening, seemingly having had enough of chasing and confrontation for now.

The plan had been to catch both birds and take them back to Butten Island, putting them on the other side of the island to the old Argos and hopefully out of CAs radar. But now, with just one bird and the other on the river, it was not really an option to break them up. Two birds would be better at fending off IS aggression, and they seemed to be pairing up. So we made the decision to release C9 back onto the river with FN and hope that things calm down for now.

Once back together, they spent some time preening, and we left them to it, with the intention of checking on them later.

With no further issues later that day, we can only hope things have calmed down for now. One thing is for sure there may be further rough days ahead for C9 and FN until they can find a stretch of river of their own. But one things for sure, we’ll be here to keep an eye on them.