THE BLACK Swans of Dawlish have enjoyed a bumper Easter weekend with the hatching of a brood of seven cygnets.

Five had appeared by Easter Sunday and overnight the remaining two eggs had also hatched.

These new fluffy babies have been born to parents Bert and Kimba.

It brings the total of cygnets born in Dawlish this week to eight.

The other swan couple Bluey and Rosie have one cygnet hatched from their nest which is now a week old and swimming on the Brook with its parents.

They are a welcome sight in Dawlish as the swan population has endured a tough time with harsh winter storms destroyed previous nests.

And the new arrivals follow a difficult year for the town’s waterfowl population following an outbreak of Avian flu when up to 50 of the ornamental birds had to be humanely culled.

The owners of holiday accommodation Pilchard Cottage managed to capture the new family.

They said: ‘Overnight more black swan cygnets have hatched under the loving warmth of their mother, Kimba, with the tiny, fluffy cygnets, all huddled together.

‘After days of waiting, watching, and wondering, it’s such a special sight to see them all safe and together on the nest.

‘It started with the arrival of Rosie and Bluey’s one and only cygnet, hatched from a clutch of five.

‘All week we have been watching on tenterhooks as this tiny little cygnet began its precious little life here on the Brook, learning from mum and dad and posing for thousands of pictures.

‘Then, our second nest belonging to Bert and Kimba started to hatch with the arrival of one lone cygnet, amongst a sea of six unhatched eggs.

‘What an Easter treat.

‘The little fluff ball born to Bluey and Rosie is continuing to lap up the attention from all of its admirers.’

The remaining eggs on that nest further along the Brook are now not going to hatch as the new family is now out on the water.

The Dawlish Waterfowl Warden has already been out at night with a net scooping the first born out of the Brook after its first swimming lesson.

The latest cygnets to arrive are likely to be out on the water within the next day or so.

These eggs were laid just weeks after storms in February swept away previous nests and eggs.

Bert and Kimba returned to the purpose-built raised island on the Brook at Tuck’s Plot where they have successfully bred in the past.

Meanwhile Bluey and Rosie chose to best further upstream but this time, on higher ground.

Both nests managed to survive heavy rainfall which left the Brook swollen and high water levels.

It has been a tumultuous winter for the Black Swans and the Dawlish waterfowl.

Two of Bert and Kimba’s cygnets which had hatched, were lost in December, thought to have been washed to sea.