Their mums must be quackers
A mum swanned off - cruelly abandoning her fluffy babies on the River Ayr.
Her five cygnets had to be rescued by the SSPCA as seagulls swooped on the nest at the Auld Brig.
Mother swan had gone on a paddle to the Citadel but her brood were not invited to follow in her ripples. After a few hours, the professionals had to step in and the chilly cygnets were transferred to the Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue in Beith.
Here are two of the five safe and warm in the centre where they are now being cared for.
Vet Teresa Vicens said: “They are doing well and are happy. When they are bigger they can be released in the same location.”
Mum Samantha Stewart, 44, of Forehill, rang the SSPCA after her daughter spotted the bereft babies about three weeks ago.
Samantha said: “My daughter Esther rang me as she was devastated. The swan is quite an immature mum and seagulls were circling around the cygnets. It is a wee shame.”
Meanwhile tiny orphan ducklings were also turned up in a Maybole garden.
The bereft brood were also rushed off to Hessilhead more than a week ago.
Gran Eleanor Jamieson, 67, sent us a picture of them. She said: “They were found by my sister, Patricia Tweedie in her garden in Maybole. The mother duck must have abandoned them. My sister sat for hours in her garden watching to see if the mother duck would come back for the ducklings, but there was no sign of her.”
She phoned Hessilhead the following day and they were whisked away to safety.