By Don Rush
Residents of Ridge Road, next to Goodrich Country Club may have wondered about the fate of a swan who looked injured or in poor health. As of Monday night, the big male swan was made a resident of the Michigan Duck Resuce and Sancturay in Plymouth..
Twenty-year Brandon Township resident Laurie Smith contacted the sanctuary.
“My friend noticed the swan on Saturday and called me right away,” Smith said. “I went to check him out, but couldn’t capture him alone. Luckily I had the connections to get a hold of Matt (Lyson, founder of the sanctuary).”
On Monday evening around 7 p.m. Smith waited in her car parked on Huron Street, headlights lighting up the swan and golf course just across Ridge Road. A few minutes later Lyson pulled up. The two were able to capture the swan.
“I thankful he will be taken care of properly,” said Smith, who has worked with licensed wildlife rehabbers for about 10 years.
After that rescue, Lyson said he drove about 12 minutes to the west for another swan rescue, a female off the corner of McCandlish andWarwick Grove roads in Grand Blanc.
“Physically there appears to nothing wrong with them. For whatever reason, at this point, the don’t appear to want to fly and because of that, they have had a pretty poor diet. The ate quite a bit of romain lettuce and corn last night,” Lyson said Tuesday morning.
The sancturay in Plymouth is a little over five acrecs, fenced, with an acre pond. On Tuesday both swans were released to the “general” waterfowl population.
“The big male swan will be company for the female. They will live th rest of their lives there,” Lyson said.
For more information about the sanctuary (a non-profit charity) go to their website,