A resident has praised the 'remarkable difference' made by owners keeping their dogs under control in a Bucks nature reserve where an 'aggressive' swan attack took place.

Alex Perry, who lives in Wooburn Green, told the Free Press in June that signs put up by the Wooburn and Bourne End Parish Council urging people to keep their dogs on leads around a family of swans in the Warren Nature Reserve had been "ripped down" and thrown into the nearby bushes.

She said she was concerned for the safety of the swans, who had made the River Wye their home years before but had stayed away until this spring after a dog bit the mother swan on the neck and punctured the lung of a cygnet. 

An "aggressive" dog attack also put a swan seriously at risk earlier this year, prompting Alex and her fellow residents to step up their efforts to protect not only the swans but "all the wildlife that calls the park their home".

In an update posted to the Wooburn Green and Bourne End Open Discussion Group last week, Alex shared an update on the safety of the swans and cygnets in the nature reserve, praising local dog owners for abiding by the new signage put in place by the council and local charity Swan Lifeline. 

She wrote: "The swan family are now very comfortable on the Daltons Path stretch of the river - a huge thank you to everyone who has respected the signs, it has made a remarkable difference."

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Molly, a representative for Swan Lifeline, said she had also noticed an improvement in the respectfulness of dog walkers in the area, adding that she believed it was due in part to the charity taking a softer approach in the messaging of its signage.

"There has been a difference because usually, the signs go up and then get ripped down but that hasn't been happening over the last few months.

"Some of the council's older signs took an approach of saying, 'Please keep your dogs on a lead', which may have angered people whose dogs weren't posing a threat to the swans. 

"It's also worth saying that dogs don't have to be on leads in that area.

"The signs that are up now have messaging that's more along the lines of, 'Please be careful around the swans' and are really just asking people to be respectful of the wildlife."

Mark Ellis, Deputy Clerk at the Parish Council added that he believed the initial resistance to the signs, which had been put up following the dog attack in early June, had simply been "a case of people not liking change".