Swan rescued from sewage works

11:27am Friday 26th October 2007

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Wildlife rescuers were faced with a smelly proposition after a swan crash landed into a sewage tank.

The elegant, white creature suffered the humiliation of plunging into a filthy vat of raw sewage at Uckfield Water Treatment Works.

After two days of milling around looking lost, staff began to get worried about the swan and called in experts from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service.

They had the rather delicate task of attempting a rescue without getting themselves covered in the gunk.

The swan could not take off again because the tank was too small for it to get enough speed up to get airbourne.

When rescue co-ordinator Trevor Weeks arrived he found his "swan hook", a device used to help free creatures, was 2ft too short.

Faced with a race against time, as the swan slowly got more coated in the thick sewage, Mr Weeks took decisive action.

He jumped into the gully, running around the edge of the tank which contained an amount of "overflow" in a bid to get nearer.

Mr Weeks said: "It was slippery and made moving round the tank quickly difficult, the last thing I wanted was to fall into the central tank, which was rather deep and smelly.

"This was a difficult rescue, as our swan hooks were just too short to reach, and the further you try to reach with a swan hook the harder it becomes to control them."

So the intrepid rescuer, who by this time was growing ever more covered in sewage and had been joined by a colleague, turned to plan B.

They quickly unfurled nets across the tank.

Mr Weeks continued: "We had to use a second net to enclose the swan but it managed to get under the net on a couple of occasions.

"But we eventually succeeded when the swan tried to climb through the net and we were able to pull the swan to the edge and capture it."

The creature was in good health and had suffered no lasting damage. However Mr Weeks was "soaked" through.

It is thought the swan crash landed after experiencing turbulence as it flew by a nearby road.

It was released with other swans on a nearby lake.

Mr Weeks added: "Our thanks to the Southern Water staff for their help with this rescue, there is no way this swan would have managed to fly out of its own accord as the tank was too small.

"The swan probably crash landed after experiencing turbulence crossing the by-pass and landed in the tank by accident."

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