CONCERNED nature lovers are keeping watch over a nest of cygnets in Malmesbury amid fears that they could come to grief after they hatched near a potentially dangerous weir.

Two years ago Liz Bradley waded into the chilly River Avon to save a tiny cygnet after it was dragged over the weir next to Station Yard by the sheer force of the water flow. She was helped by Ray Hood, from the Oak and Furrows Wildlife Centre.

Last year two cygnets perished after a family of swans nested at the same spot and now the pair have returned to make a new nest where their young ones are now being weaned.

Miss Bradley, 51, is among several local people who are keeping an anxious eye on the cygnets in the hope that they won’t be swept over the weir where they will almost certainly drown.

She said: “Once again the swans have nested near the weir at Station Yard, putting the lives of their young in peril.

“The local cygnet guardians with some trepidation are wondering what dramas will unfold this time.”

Miss Bradley said that last year a dead cygnet remained strung over the weir for several days after it had left its nest and drowned. “It was quite a grotesque sight,” she said.

What are believed to be the same pair of swans recently returned to build a new nest and two weeks ago nine cygnets hatched, two of which have since died, possibly as a result of predators.

Miss Bradley said the presence of the weir and what was often a very fast flowing river presented an ongoing threat to the safety of the baby birds.

She said the cygnets were occasionally prone to wander from the nest to the top of the nearby weir where they could and sometimes do get swept over. “If the flow isn’t that strong the mother will try to get them.

“But if the river is strong then the mother will leave it because the other cygnets would follow her.”

She said it was a picturesque spot where people like to walk or take photographs. Local people are now keeping an eye out in case any of the cygnets finds itself in trouble.

Miss Bradley, who volunteered to swim in full clothed to save a cygnet in 2013, is writing a blog on a week in the life of a cygnet hatchling. To follow it go to www.gazetteandherald.co.uk