UPDATE: State Police Elaborate On Route 128 Swan Incident

This was updated at 4:50 p.m. on Thursday.

A group of large birds on Route 128 narrowly avoided their swan song mid-day Thursday thanks to help from the Massachusetts State Police.

Around noon on Thursday, numerous callers contacted the State Police barracks in Danvers about a group of swans gathered in the breakdown lane of Route 95 North at the Walnut Street Exit in Lynnfield. Trooper Patrick Haynesworth dispatched several cruisers to investigate the fowl situation.

Troopers Matthew Sheehan and Danny Hartley were the first on the scene, and quickly spotted the large group of juvenile swans. With patience and a little persuasion, they led the swans off the road and onto a nearby field. From there, they resumed their normal patrol duties.

A short time later though, the Danvers barracks again started receiving calls about a single swan that was back on the roadway.

Troopers Sheehan and Hartley, as well as Sergeant Byron Rizos, returned to the scene. There, they found a large and disoriented juvenile swan that would not get out of the road. Using a large blanket, troopers managed to corral the animal and got him to the side of the highway.

Sergeant Rizos then contacted animal control, observing that the swan seemed determined to get back into the roadway.  Trooper Haynesworth called the Boston Animal Rescue League and asked for their assistance as well. Brian O’Connor, a manager with the Animal Rescue League, soon arrived. With help from the troopers, O’Connor netted the swan and placed him in an animal-friendly container for transport.

The animal was safely relocated to a Lynnfield area pond that swans are known to frequent. No animals or troopers were injured during the incident.