By LOUISE ECCLES

Hitching a ride: The pair of cygnets snuggle themselves into their mother's feathers as they ride along the water at Abbotsbury Swannery


They should take to swimming like, er, a duck to water.

But why bother when you can ride the Mummy Express instead?

These fluffy cygnets opted for the drier – and lazier – option during a family outing in the sun.


A mother's love: The swan uses her beak to tend gently to her cygnet ahead of it's journey


Photographer David Parker said: 'Their mum seemed to be teaching them to swim at first but they soon tired and decided to hitch a ride. They were certainly travelling in style.'

Many cygnets have arrived earlier than usual in the UK this year because of the warm weather.

At Abbotsbury Swannery, on Chesil Beach, Dorset – where this family was pictured – more than 120 pairs of nesting swans have already hatched their cygnets.


All aboard: The two cygnets take their seats in the Mummy Express during their drier - and lazier - outing in the sun


First class travel: The mother swan uses part of her wing to assure that the cygnet is securely in place


Cute: These cygnets are part of the offspring of more than 120 pairs of swans at the swannery in Dorset


The first arrived almost two weeks earlier than usual.

The Benedictine monks who owned the swannery until the 1540s apparently believed the arrival of the first cygnet signalled the first day of summer.

And aptly the first cygnet to arrive this year was named 'Sunny' by swannery staff.


source: dailymail