Heartbroken swan loses his partner and is hit by car in same week

04 March 2024 , 10:40

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A heartbroken swan is being rehomed after losing his partner and being hit by a car in one week (Image: Wendy Hermon/SWNS)

A heartbroken swan is being rehomed after losing his partner and being hit by a car in one tragic week.

Charlie the swan, who lives in The Crammer Pond in Devizes, Wiltshire, was seen wandering the neighbourhood crying after he lost his mate in an incident. Sally Noseda, 74, who has lived in the area for six years with her husband, says that the pond is very unsafe for swans.

Due to the ponds location the birds have no choice but to cross the main road in order to find a place to nest. Mrs Noseda said: "The Cramer isn't the best place for them to be because there is no suitable nesting site for them there." The semi-retired website designer moved from Devon to be closer to her family and says that she had no interest in swans before coming to the area.

Being able to see the pond from her window, Mrs Noseda fell in love with the wildlife and ended up starting a Facebook group called Friends of the Cramer for people who are keen to keep an eye on and take care of the local birds. Charlie the swan, named after the king, and his partner Cassandra were a famous couple of loved up swans who frequented the area.

Charlies is now being rehomed (Sally Noseda/SWNS)

Last Saturday they managed to get across the main road, but the female swan supposedly mistook the adjoining road for water and unfortunately, she crash landed and died. The female swan was taken away by Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital and Charlie was guided back onto the water.

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Mrs Noseda says that Charlie was heartbroken in the aftermath of the accident and would continuously search for his beloved mate. She said: "It was really devastating. She dragged herself up onto the grass next to Charlie, but she died. They have quite a similar grieving process to us, and we all knew that this was going to be a difficult time for him. Unfortunately, what he started to do was walk around looking for her.

"He didn't rest. He was just wandering around all the time with his head up looking for her, calling out for her and doing a little cry." The community banded together for the week following the accident to try and help Charlie to safely cross the roads whilst he was looking for his partner. Mrs Noseda added: "We ended up with teams of people trying to keep an eye on him. We couldn't stop him from looking for her, but we needed to stop the traffic and keep him safe."

Yesterday, however, Charlie was hit by a car on his journey back to the Cramer. Specialist charity Swan Support took him back to their headquarters yesterday afternoon to care for him and they hope to release him in a safer environment. Mrs Noseda hopes that one day he will find another mate.

Charlie with his mate before the tragic incident (Sally Noseda/SWNS)

She said: "After the week that he had of real trauma he then got hit by a car himself. We think that he is probably just bruised and cut. It has been a really tough week for poor Charlie, he has absolutely been put through the mill. We are all just trying to do our best to keep him safe and right at the last leg we failed him. If we managed to get him out earlier then we might have been able to save him from that last bit of trauma."

Wendy Hermon, 54, has worked for the charity Swan Support for 30 years. She says that when they picked Charlie up yesterday, he had quite bad injuries to both of his feet and swelling on one of his wings. She said: "Our aim was to collect him completely fit and well to prevent him from having any accidents, but unfortunately, he got himself into a bit of bother yesterday.

"He will recover and is on antibiotics at the moment. Once the swelling has gone down, we will relocate him, but we don't know where yet." Ms Hermon says that in her time at the charity they have seen many heartbroken swans, and that there is still hope for Charlie to find love again in the future. She added: "It happens quite often. It is like humans; some get over it quite quick and others never get over it. The bond between them was very strong. What makes it worse is that their hormones are raging at the moment because it is breeding season, so that makes it even harder. There will be females where we send him, so I think he definitely has hope of finding another mate."

Rom Preston-Ellis