THE first of an expected 600 cygnets have hatched at Abbotsbury Swannery.
Six adorable ugly ducklings were being kept snug under their mother's wings.
Deputy swan herd Steve Grove said: "The first cygnets started hatching yesterday and they hatched overnight. They are the first of 142 nests here that are due to hatch - with the peak hatching in the last few days of May and early June.
"The cygnets stay with their parents on their little territory within the colony. Some are put into pens where they're a lot safer and they will be here until September or October. Then their parents will take them down to the Fleet Lagoon to where their natural food grows - the eelgrass - and spend the winter down there.
"Their parents will then come back in the Spring to start all over again."
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