Only a few months ago the oldest swan reserve in Britain was facing disaster.

Around 80 nests were washed away last March

Hit by bird flu and buffeted by the worst floods in its living memory, it looked as if 600 years of history could be wiped off the map.

But Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset has overcome the worst crisis in its history to produce a record number of baby cygnets.

Around 80 nests were washed away last March when a high tide combined with strong south westerly winds to inundate the Fleet lagoon at Chesil Beach.

Fortunately the floods came before any eggs had been laid. Dozens of volunteers were drafted in to help rebuild the nests using the locally grown reeds also used for the county’s characteristic thatched roofs.

The devastating floods hit the swannery only weeks after ten of the birds had succumbed to the bird flu outbreaks which threatened Britain’s poultry industry last January.

Experts believe the majority of the estimated 600 swans at Abbotsbury, the only colony of swans in the world open to the public, may have survived bird flu by developing their own immunity to the disease. This, combined with a mild winter, allowed them to thrive when the Spring mating season came.

Now nearly 1000 cygnets are in the process of hatching on the 159 nests built for the swans - the highest number of nesting sites seen at the 2,000 acre sanctuary for several years.

John Houston, manager of the swannery, said: “When we were hit by bird flu last January we thought it might be the end of the swannery. We were staring into a black hole. We thought they would all have to be culled.

“The swans overcame that crisis with only a few losses, only to be hit by terrible floods in March. To overcome both those setbacks and still produce a bumper hatching of cygnets shows incredible resilience in the face of adversity.”

The swannery dates back to at least 1393, when the earliest surviving written records refer to a swannery founded in the area by Benedictine monks whose monastery stood near the lagoon. The birds’ meat provided the basis for the monastery’s wealth.

Swans do not usually congregate in such large numbers, but the lagoon’s fresh water and reed beds, sheltered behind Chesil Beach’s long pebble bank, provide the perfect habitat for a colony, giving visitors unique access to the birds. The Abbotsbury birds are only one of three herds of British swans to be privately owned. The rest are all Crown property.

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