I would need to go and check our database for last year, but I think that only two whooper swans came into care during the winter.

These are birds that don’t often come into rehab centres. They are wild birds that breed in Iceland. When it is time for the birds to migrate, the parents must round them up, give them a few lessons about not stopping halfway here for a rest, and they will all hopefully arrive together.

I might not have believed the story. One of our colleagues from another organization got a call about a swan.

The swan, she was told, was hanging from a tree. It was, honestly, just hanging there. Its head apparently trapped between branches.

By the time the young whooper swan arrived here, it had calmed down a bit. It walked from the carrying box into the enclosure, looked around and sat down.

We took a bucket of bread and swan food. The swan still didn’t move. We decided that if we had been hanging from a tree for several hours, we would just like some time to recover on our own.

The main difference between the whooper swan and the mute swans that we get to treat frequently was the noise. The whooper swan definitely had a lot to say.

Today, the whooper has been allowed out into an enclosure. There is a small pond just big enough for him to swim and he seems to like the outdoor sounds.