Swan that landed in Ashton back yard is rescued and set free in Southport

The cygnet, that is thought to be one of nine born on the Lancaster Canal in spring, landed in the back yard of an Eldon Street house on Saturday.

In a video shared to the Noah's Ark Cat Rescue and Sanctuary Facebook page, owner Julie Denise Tattler and colleague Jennifer Coupe can be seen catching the cygnet and transporting it in a crate to then be set free at the coast.

Julie said: "We often get requests to help animals in need and I got a call on Friday night saying that a swan had flown into someone's back yard. The poor man had been frightened because he had gone to take his rubbish out and there was a swan in his yard.

"It was a first for me, I have never handled a swan before, so I put a status on Facebook asking for advice as I didn't want to hurt or endanger the bird that would have already been distressed."

Help was on hand from Southport's Swan Rescue and the Ainsworth Wildlife Rescue, who informed Julie that she should set it free in Southport despite them not knowing where it came from, because it is a large area of open water that doesn't have problems with swan territory.

And the rescue went swimmingly - Julie wrapped it in a sheet and put it in a crate with another sheet over. She said that the bird was calm throughout the car journey to Southport and quickly made itself comfortable in its new home.

Her experience as owner of Noah's Ark Cat Rescue and Sanctuary, Tarleton, meant that herself and Jennifer were comfortable handling birds such as geese and chickens.

"Swans need a lot of area to take off, and I didn't want to leave it there any longer and cause it to panic or try and take off and injur itself. The advice we were given was to watch the wings and support its neck," said Julie.

"We managed to get the swan into a crate and it didn't make a noise the whole way there. Once we had released it, it swam straight over to two adults.

"I have geese and chickens at the rescue centre so I'm used to handling them but this was entirely different. I am happy it was a successful rescue but it was intimidating."

Despite the apparent success of releasing 'Eldon' - the name given to the lost swan, Julie said she’d received some negative comments online.

She said: "People have been saying we should've taken it back to the canal. Firstly, we didn't know where in Preston it came from. It could have got killed if we sent it back where it came from because swans are very territorial creatures.

"We took expert advice and did our best. The advice from the experts was that I would be risking the swan’s life if I took it to the wrong place on the canal because it’s so narrow down there.

“I’ve had a couple of messages from wildlife experts who said well done, and most people have been supportive. It was a success."