Swan Life
Mum sitting on five eggs, seven days before hatching day.
After well over a month of incubating the eggs, her babies hatched: The cygnet closest to the camera was still wet as it was born one day later than the others.
Mum, stretching her wings.
A short time later, Mum coaxed four of the their cygnets down into the water for their first swim. But one of them was still too young to enter the water and stayed on the nest. Mum got back onto the nest to protect it: A single cygnet on its own could be taken by one of the many marauding crows. Dad looked after the other four youngsters that enjoyed their first swim.
About
After about ten minutes, they'd been in the water long enough and whilst Mum called them to her, Dad cajoled them towards the nest.
Mum looks on as they started to make their way back towards her.
The next morning, all five cygnets had now left the nest and were accompanying Mum around the swampy area.
Later that day, the whole family left the nesting site, and set off to find a territory, to start the next stage of their lives. Good luck to all of them!