Swan pictured teaching cygnets how to swim

THESE adorable pictures show a mother swan appearing to teach her newly hatched cygnets how to swim and their arrival means summer is here.

The mother swan takes the cygnets for their first swim. Picture: Hemedia

The first to break out of their shells at Ashby Ville nature reserve in Scunthorpe, they are fast getting into the swim of things, with their mum keeping a watchful eye.

The seven young chicks could be seen struggling to negotiate the steep drop into the water from the nest but soon found their water legs.

Photographer Lindsay Parnaby said: “I had been watching them for about a month and they finally hatched last Sunday.

“They were struggling on their feet at first and the mother swan was keeping a close eye on them.

“It appeared like she was teaching them how to swim and gave them a helping hand when they needed it.

“I was there for a while watching them, it was a very peaceful scene, and eventually the cygnets took to the lake like a duck to water.

“It was lovely to see as last year the same pair had five cygnets but lost them all.

“This time round they look to be doing fine and seem a big happy family.”

The arrival of baby swans is traditionally seen as the first day of the summer.

Benedictine monks who owned Abbotsbury Swannery, on Chesil beach, in Dorset, until the 1540s believed the arrival of the first cygnet signalled the start of the season .