The Conversation (0)
Bethany Dawson
Mar 26, 2021
Rates of crime may be reducing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but has anyone checked in on what the swans are getting up to whilst we’re indoors?
One swan has been terrorising residents on a street in Northampton by insisting on knocking at doors.
The insubordinate swan – known as Cedric to locals – passes time by rattling letterboxes with his beak, reportedly for up to three hours.
County Councillor Stephen Legg – whose home is targetted most by Cedric – has experienced the door-knocking antics for the past five years.
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“Around this time of year five years ago, the male swan started messing around my front door,” he said.
“It rattles the letterbox with its beak and stands in front of the glass.
“The racket reverberates through the whole house. It doesn’t do any damage, but it’s extremely irritating.”
Over the years, he’s tried various methods to stop Cedric, including covering up his front door so he doesn’t get any post and installing a device that omits a swan-repellent ultrasonic noise. But he’s had no luck.
The RSPCA have come to investigate the situation, and have concluded that Cedric may be trying to scrape insects off of front doors, but Mr Legg says there are no insects on the inside of his letterbox.
Another person local to Cedric’s antics, Wendy Howard, says that she does think the site of the bird-cold-caller hybrid is “pretty funny”, though probably funnier as he doesn’t visit her home.
Giving the postman a run for his money at least provides some excitement for locals as we continue to be locked down with little else for entertainment.