Police had a job on their hands when a family of wandering swans caused a flap on Dunedin's southern motorway yesterday.
Senior Sergeant Craig Brown said motorists were forced to take evasive action as nine swans - two adults and their seven cygnets - waddled on to the motorway's north-bound lane near Fairfield about 9.20am yesterday.
Police were called and spent about an hour marshalling "mum, dad and the kids" off the busy motorway, despite the best efforts of a feisty male, Snr Sgt Brown said.
"One of the [swans] was attacking a car on the way past," he said.
Two police officers - using a broom and a tarpaulin - eventually corralled the birds on the side of the motorway, helped by an SPCA Otago staff member, a passing member of the public and an Otago Daily Times photographer (Constable Tyron Wall and helpful passer-by Warren Garbutt are photographed above).
The swans were ushered back through a hole in a nearby fence, and Snr Sgt Brown said not any of the birds were injured in their aborted crossing.
