THEY are fussy about their nest. The resident mute swans, Wynn and Brynn, who live on the moat at the Bishop's Palace in Wells (News, 3 May 2013), are for ever rearranging the twigs, leaves, and feathers to make the perfect incubator for their eggs. You can see them if you visit the swan webcam on www.bishopspalace.org.uk.

Sarah Moore, the Visitor Services Manager at the Palace, was able to confirm a couple of weeks ago that Wynn had laid some eggs, and she hopes that the arrival of the new cygnets will be captured live on camera some time early in May.

It is a new, large nest, built just a short distance from the first nest they built after arriving from Wales a year ago. That resulted in seven fluffy cygnets that immediately won the hearts of Palace visitors. They, too, were filmed, and during the month of May nearly 6000 people visited the webcam, spending on average six minutes each time, watching the cygnets and their parents.

But parental care, so good in its early stages, has its limits, and several cygnets were chased away when they were old enough to survive on their own (they do not have the same housing problems as young human adults). Only three remain at the Palace, believed to be all pens (females), which may be why they have been allowed to remain. But not for much longer. Wynne and Brynn have been seen chasing them round the moat, and seem to want them out of the way before the new family emerges.

"Drama is never far away where our resident swans are concerned," Ms Moore says; "so we look forward to an eventful spring."