We lost our old breeding pair of swans on our stretch of the Union Canal a couple of years back, so after many years of taking photos of them, and then their cygnets each spring, for a few years this part was without the welcome, annual event of the birth of new swans each spring.

We’ve had a young pair of swans for a little while now on this part of the canal around Fountainbridge (close to where the Union Canal finally terminates near the city centre), and we’ve been waiting to see if they would actually form a breeding pair and mate successfully. Earlier in the spring some friends alerted me to them building a nest – first time breeding for this pair, and they didn’t pick the best location (it is in quite a busy area, a more isolated part would be better, like the previous pair did). However, we were excited, then when we saw eggs in the nest, and mama swan (Cindy) brooding on them in April, we became excited – would we be seeing new cygnets in the near future?

Well, yes, we did! A little over a week ago, my friend sent me a message to say the first egg had hatched – I had walked past there on the evening before and nothing had happened at that point, so the wee fella was born some time the next morning. He or she was born on the 99th birthday of the wonderful David Attenborough, so we decided to name it Attenborough! I was off that Thursday, so I walked up to the nest location to find several of my friends standing in the sunlight watching, and there was wee Attenborough, less than a day old, nestled up between mama and papa.

And then something even more remarkable – I noticed little Attenborough start moving along to the rear of his parents, something had his attention. It turned out to be the noise of an egg shell cracking – another sibling was being born right as we stood there, with wee Attenborough trying to help by pecking at the shell, then mama started too, and in a moment a little head, slicked by the gunk inside the egg, emerged, then its head flopped tiredly down.

All these years I have taken photos of each year’s cygnets, but I have never actually seen one being born! What a magical moment to witness. These photos are literally capturing the first couple of moments of this small creature’s life on this planet. I couldn’t help but think I was watching something that has been happening for hundreds of millions of years – ninety million years back and this could have been a baby T-Tex or raptor emerging from its egg (birds, after all, are descended from the theropod dinosaurs), and here I was able to witness it and capture it on film to share.

A week later and three eggs have now hatched, but sadly the remaining few have not, and given the last one to hatch was several days ago, and the mama has stopped sitting on them, it seems unlikely they are viable. However the three cygnets are now out with mum and dad (Cindy and Mr G), swimming around near the nest, and enjoying being fed (please, no bread! It’s not good for the birds or the canal – grains, sweetcorn, green leaves etc are best).

So delighted to have these little miracles near us, and looking forward to taking more photos of them as they grow over coming months. And I still can’t get over seeing one actually hatching and entering the world (and on Attenborough’s birthday of all days!).