I had to go in to Cardiff today so I included a walk through ‘Little Venice’, the small network of canals south of the city centre. When I turned the first corner, this lovely family of Mute swans came immediately in to view – two adults and their six adorable cygnets.

Sometimes these canals are full of rubbish but, fortunately for the wildlife, it seemed much cleaner today – perhaps the local river-cleaning volunteer group have been busy.

As the canals have footpaths along both sides and are frequently used by pedestrians, the wildlife gets used to humans, and these adult swans were obviously used to people. They swam over to me, looking for food, and I was happy to oblige with some of the suet pellets I usually carry, though I was pleased to see that the cygnets remained wary and stuck to a vegetarian diet.