Birds of a feather block traffic together in Highland Park

A traffic incident Monday morning in Highland Park had commuters in a fowl mood.

Highland Park police responded at 7:40 a.m. to Route 41 near Park Avenue West for two domestic swans that had escaped and were cornered on the busy highway.

The swans, according to the city, had wandered over from the nearby Hybernia subdivision and blocked the southbound lanes of Route 41. After crossing traffic, they got trapped on the road’s shoulder, between the concrete median and the roadway.

Ileana Robson, a Lake Forest resident on her way to work in Wilmette, pulled over her car in an effort to protect the swans. She told The Record that motorists were swerving around the animals and she was worried for their safety.

After pulling over, Robson called police. Highland Park officer Gregory Mendoza arrived and with Robson, watched over the swans while awaiting the swans’ handler to arrive — no easy task since the male swan was attempting to cross over the median.

“We were monitoring them, making sure they didn’t go on the other side of the highway or revert backward, and we waited,” said Robson, who added that she was jumping back and forth over the median to disrupt the male swan’s escape attempts.

But the adventure wasn’t over.

When the handler arrived, Mendoza grabbed and lifted the male swan, triggering the female to run back into traffic, Robson said.

Fortunately, another good Samaritan, she said, stopped and parked his van at an angle in the roadway to halt the female swan, enabling her capture.

The shenanigans lasted about an hour, Robson said.

“It was fun. It was so much fun,” she said, adding that she also helped a goose family cross a busy street in Buffalo Grove in the spring. ” … I mean, I’m one of those people, I can’t see animals getting hurt. It really breaks my heart.”

The Hybernia neighborhood, where the swans lived, is approximately a mile west of where they were rescued.

Mute swans, the species involved in Monday’s incident, are not native to Illinois; however, the species is now a permanent resident of the state since its introduction to Illinois in the 1970s, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

An adult mute swan can reach more than five feet in length and 25 pounds in weight.

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