Well done Peter, especially with your bad back. Reminds me of the Swift which fell in the sludge lagoon at Hindley sewage works many years ago. It was rescued and laid on a worker's cap, and put in the staffroom oven on Regulo 1 for a while, and recovered. (The late Ray Yates, probably the first ringer in this county, told me that story) Seriously, both birds might have been carrying a high load of parasites which suck their blood - a dusting at the vet's with an appropriate insecticide might help. I've heard it's a good idea to throw Swifts in the air to start them flying again?
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
Nice rescue Peter & Norma, quite bizzare how it got into the water, what are the chances it collided with another Swift?! There were hundreds of Swifts on Elton tonight!
My wife Norma and I were on the wall next to Old Hall Farm at 16:30 when I saw a small bird flapping in the water. On closer inspection I realised it was a Swift. I ran down the ramp hoping to wade out to try to rescue it, but even though I had wellington's on it was too deep.
By the time I walked round to the field side it had been in the water about 10 minutes. I walked to the water's edge which was again too deep. At that point I realised I had to do something so I took off my wellington's and waded in up to my waist. I managed to pick up what looked like a lifeless body, its eyes were shut and it was limp in my hands. I returned to the shore, wrapped it in a hanky and we took it home.
Norma put it on a heat mat, in a box and covered it with a towel. Around two hours later Norma checked it and said amazingly it looked okay. We took it to the former East Lancs Paper Mill Lodge, Norma took it out of the box and sat it on her hand. It looked round for a few seconds and then took off. We watched it flying around for about 5 minutes before it flew out of sight. We just couldn't believe it. No idea how it got into such a predicament.
