A couple of nights ago I was sitting outside with a few people. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a large bird quite high up. At a quick glance with the birds long neck I thought that it was a Heron flying towards the Lake. I then realised that it could not be a Heron as it was Black. At the same time of me thinking that one of the other people said it was a Black Swan. It was and I had just one thing in my mind it was one of our Black Swans. I ran to the Lake and my fear was justified, there were only two Swans on the Lake, our third was flying very high above me. By the time that it had got back the Swan was making a decent and flying towards the Lake but far to high to make a safe landing. We lost sight of the Swan behind the Farm House and trees so I once again started to make my way back to the Lake. The Swan must have realised that its decent was to high and it came into sight climbing. It circled very high above the Farm for a long while only coming into sight every couple of minutes or so. It was getting darker by the minute and concerns were growing if it was able to land safely or not. With the power lines that are around the Lake any landing poses some danger and this inexperienced Swan would not be an acception. The Swan made a couple of more attempts having to abort at the last moment. It was getting imperative because of the fading light that it landed soon. It once again started to descend towards the Lake still much to high. I was sure that this was the Swans final chance. When I arrived at the Lake it had landed. It was at the far end very close to the bank so it had only just made it. Any further it would have landed on hard ground and been injured if not killed
When I first got the Swans I was told that they were pinioned making them unable to fly. Pinioning is a simple and painless procedure that should be done when the Cygnets have just hatched. Quite obviously it had not been done properly. Next morning two Swans were on the smaller Pond so it could be that another Swan that came from the same place had also not been done correctly. I know one has been so I have ordered another female just in case two Swans fly away leaving one on its own. Hopefully it is arriving next week.