Home bird

A Cavan family, whose dog retrieved a swan's egg from Sheelin Lake almost a year ago, have released the fully-grown bird back to the wild.

“It was emotional,” admits Declan McCabe after releasing the bird that he had nurtured after he and son Stephen rescued the egg from the jaws of four-year-old Irish Setter Sam in May 2020.

Not certain whether a mother swan (Pen) had rejected the egg, or even if it was viable, a curious Declan set about looking for ways to save the chick if possible.

Back then, Declan knew very little about raising birds, never mind a swan. He required the loan of an egg incubator, and even had to modify that with masking tape simply to hold the lid down due to the sheer size of the hatchling.

Some twelve months on and that chick is now a healthy adult swan, thankfully capable of fending for itself.

Declan says the 12 months, even with lockdown, “came quick”. It had always been his intention to release the bird back onto Lough Sheelin once ready, but accepts that the swan had very much become part of the McCabe family's Mountnugent home during that time.

“He'd been going for daily swims in the bath out beside the house every day and, for the last year, he's been grazing in the grass. We’ve been giving him lettuce and meal for protein as well. There's not a lot of information out there about raising swans, so it's been an interesting journey.”

Declan is now excited to see how the swan he raised will do in the wild and integrate with other swans.

“He's from the lake so he's part of the lake. I'm down at the lake every day myself, so I'll be keeping an eye out. Definitely.”