Gay Christie from Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue Centre writes with her latest update.

When we got the call about the injured swan at Irvine harbour, it had just a trickle of blood running down its neck.

The swans at Irvine can be easy to catch, as most of them come readily for bread.

However, when we catch them depends on the tide.

The swans are used to getting fed from the pontoon beside the sunken boat, and at high tide some of them come onto the platform.

Unfortunately it was low tide when the swan was first spotted.

A few hours later our rescue team set off for Irvine, with three healthy cygnets in the van.

These cygnets had all crash landed, but were fully recovered and ready to go.

After releasing them our team got out the bread, and a flock of swans, including the injured one, swam over to jostle for the free handout.

It was easy to reach out and take hold of the casualty, and soon it was in our ambulance, heading back to Hessilhead.

The blood flow increased, we applied more pressure and put on more bandaging.

The swan was active, kept shaking its head, and blood covered its cage, its feathers and nearby surfaces.

As far as we’d seen, there was just one puncture, maybe a dog bite, maybe a shot.

Two days later we took off the bandages, carefully, afraid that the wound might bleed again. It was fine.

The swan seems none the worse for her alarming mishap.