Swan who couldn’t bear to f ly the nest
WHEN he rescued an injured orphan cygnet, Rob Adamson intended to nurse him to health and release him after a few weeks.
But Sidney the swan had other ideas. He has become so attached to his kindly surrogate father that he can’t bear to be without him.
Sidney was found beside the body of his dead mother and brother in May following an attack by an animal. He had two large wounds to his neck when discovered by a boatyard worker who was cutting the grass.
Mr Adamson, 39, who moors his houseboat at the yard on the Great Ouse in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, adopted him. As he fed Sidney special swan pellets and green peas, they formed a strong bond. They went shopping and kayaking. The cygnet insisted on snuggling up to him at night, and became friends with his chihuahua, Sophie.
The builder said at the time: ‘I have a little box next to my bed that he is meant to sleep in but he wouldn’t have any of that. He is not happy unless he is cuddling up to me and then he can fall asleep straight away.’
But as Sidney grew older and was able to feed himself, Mr Adamson decided, reluctantly, he should be integrated with other mute swans. In July, he took him to East Winch RSPCA wildlife centre in Norfolk and assumed he would never see the bird again.
After only three months, however, it became clear Sidney was pining for his surrogate father.
Mr Adamson received a phone call asking if he could still provide a home for the swan, who was distressed and had been ‘screaming his head off for days’. They were reunited last week. ‘I whistled at him and he whistled back and rushed over to me,’ Mr Adamson said. ‘I felt like a proud father seeing him come home. I couldn’t bear to be with- out him and he clearly missed me too. When cygnets are away from their parents they can become really distressed. He tried to adapt to being a swan but he just wanted to be back on the boat.
‘It was magical seeing him back in the boatyard. It means everything to me considering all that we have been through.’ Sidney, who has turned from cygnet grey to brown, will soon begin to develop the distinctive white appearance of an adult.
Mr Adamson said: ‘How often do you get to rescue a baby cygnet from death, raise him and see him grow into a beautiful swan?’
‘I feel like a proud father’