{"id":325027,"date":"2025-12-03T13:30:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325027\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T13:30:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:30:13","slug":"swan-that-stops-traffic-on-m1-northampton-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325027\/","title":{"rendered":"Swan that stops traffic on M1 Northampton saved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kris HollandNorthamptonshire<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764759192_460_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/e2726670-cf8a-11f0-a892-01d657345866.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"National Highways A selfie of Adrian Woods in high-vis traffic officer uniform poses in a car with a swan that has been strapped into a bag so it can be taken to safety.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>National Highways<\/p>\n<p>Adrian Woods said he was no stranger to swan rescues<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A confused swan was rescued by traffic officers after it brought a stretch of a motorway to a standstill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">National Highways said the bird wandered across a four-lane section of the M1 near Northampton last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">CCTV footage showed vehicles had to come to a complete stop to avoid hitting the animal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Adrian Woods, one of the National Highway officers involved, helped move the bird to a small lake off junction 16, resulting in &#8220;a happy ending all round&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Woods and a colleague were dispatched from the nearby Watford Gap outstation when the incident was reported at about 10:30 GMT on 19 November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">It was believed the bird mistook the haze on the road surface for a body of water. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">They safely captured the bird using a swan bag, which is carried in officers&#8217; vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Woods said it was the fourth swan rescue he has carried out in his seven-year career with National Highways.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764759192_460_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/f917e830-cf8c-11f0-8d79-4975c2144860.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"National Highways A CCTV still image of a swan standing on a motorway in front of several vehicles.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>National Highways<\/p>\n<p>The swan brought traffic on the M1 to a temporary standstill last month<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\"> &#8220;Unfortunately, when the roads are wet, or there is a haze over the carriageway, swans think it is a body of water and land on the road,&#8221; he said<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;It is a bit of a shock when they hit the ground, so the swan was a bit confused and its ego bruised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;The incident was dealt with in around 10 minutes with traffic flowing again and the bird taken to a nearby lake where it was soon swimming away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764759192_460_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2f7090d0-cf8d-11f0-a892-01d657345866.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"National Highways A swan is released next to a body of water and is being helped out of a so-called swan bag which highways officers used to capture it and move it to safety.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>National Highways<\/p>\n<p>The bird was moved to safety after its ordeal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kris HollandNorthamptonshire National Highways Adrian Woods said he was no stranger to swan rescues A confused swan was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-325027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}