A swan freed from beach rocks was released at Christchurch quay

A male swan stuck in beach rocks during Storm Austen is back on the water. BBC News reported on October 29, 2026, that passers-by found him on a Friday afternoon at Barton on Sea, wedged in a small gap among large rocks close to the sea, and called the RSPCA.

Inspector Jo Story climbed into the rocks. She said she folded one wing against his chest and was able to pull him free, then wrapped him in a towel. A passer-by stopped and helped her climb out. The swan went to Wildlife in Need, a Bournemouth charity, to be checked. He was healthy enough to return to the wild, and he was released at Christchurch Town Quay on Wednesday morning. Story said the high winds of Storm Austen had blown him into the rocks and that he could not get himself out. Provisional Met Office figures in the BBC report put a maximum gust that day at 69 knots, about 79 miles an hour, on the Isle of Wight, as the storm crossed Dorset, Hampshire, and the island.

The account is one bird, freed and released. It does not say where he had been living before the storm.