Learning to fly is one of the most important things these young cygnets will ever do. But they have one big obstacle in their way which is hampering their efforts – Whittington Castle.

For the birds have little room to take off and land, with one already having crashed into the stone bridge at the castle. Now the birds are are being moved to a new life by the sea where they will have room to learn how to take to the sky.

The five fully grown cygnets were causing concern as they began to try to fly the nest from their home on Whittington Castle moat.

And with the lack of room causing problems and the family also wandering on a main road, the RSPCA decided to act and carry out a “rescue” operation.

Yesterday four officers arrived at the castle and in just half an hour managed to catch the cygnets and put them in special carry-bags for their drive to their new home at Caernarfon in North Wales.

The officers – one in a wetsuit – surrounded the cygnets and, helped by villager Jean Hayward shaking a jug of bird feed, drove them to a narrow part of the moat.

There the officers netted or hooked the birds one at a time and carried them to the transport bags. It certainly put the parent swans in a flap and they hissed and flew at the officers as they took their babies away.

Mrs Hayward said she enjoyed feeding the family but is glad they are going before they hurt themselves trying to fly away.

Inspector Chris Dunbar said: “They had started to try to fly but there is only one way in and out of the moat for take off. There are lots of obstacles such as the trees and a power line, and one had already injured itself flying into the bridge.

“Our role is to protect animals and the swans were causing problems for pedestrians and traffic by walking along the busy road beside the moat so there was an issue of public safety as well.

“It’s quite a rare thing for us to move wild animals but we felt it was necessary to protect the swans and the public so we decided they would have to be moved to a safer place.

“We took them to Caernarfon and they seemed to happy enough when we released them yesterday.”

The injured swan is being cared for at the Stapeley Water Gardens.

By Sue Austin and Iain St John