On Sunday morning we had a knock on the door from our friendly Sunday paper delivery man. He warned us that our swans were going off piste and we’re currently heading into Morpeth via the road (with all eight cygnets in tow).

Libby and I scampered out in hot pursuit ( missing breakfast) to find the family about to cross the East Coast mainline😱. I should say this is about 0.5 miles from their pond! With some gentle persuasion we managed to turn them around a walk them back towards the Reserve.

After a very slow walk we reached the road to the reserve and they refused to go home. They decided to go up the public footpath in the opposite direction to the reserve. My thought is they were trying to reach the river. We followed them until they disappeared into a barley field and decided we could do no more.

About two hours later they wandered up to the entrance to the reserve looking rather tired! Those short fat hairy legs must have done more than 2 miles walking.

I’m pretty sure they will try this again but I’m not sure we can do much to stop them (if we should even try). My worry is dogs and cars!