A pair of adult Mute swans nested on our local river. From what I have read, if they are here for the first time, they must probably be first-time parents of about 4-5 years old. Initially the clutch was 7 but one egg either cracked or hatched prematurely and resulted in a dead cygnet. The other six eggs hatched fine two days ago and all the cygnets looked healthy

Yesterday, it rained all day and the pen kept them all in the nest. At that point I don't think any of them had been on the water. When we went down to look this morning I had remarked to my wife that they probably wouldn't be on the nest now and if they were there was probably something wrong.

Cob was crouched on the edge of the nest and the pen was stood over the well in the centre of the nest. One of the cygnets apparently got into the water about ten minutes before we got there, the pen had tried to stop it, but it fell in and was so weak it drowned.

The other remaining cygnets don't even have the strength to stand up and the centre of the nest is a mass of waving legs, the pen hooting at them occasionally as if she is trying to encourage them. I think they are all going to die.

I could not watch anymore and sadly left them to it. What do you think could have resulted in this situation? I guess they could simply be starving through having been in the nest two whole days?
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