EVER since they were made homeless they have been swanning around the streets of a Hampshire village in search of their daily bread.

For years an adult pair of swans had been quite happy rearing their young families in the North Pond area not far from the centre of Bishop's Waltham.

But suddenly they have found themselves out on a wing - after their nesting ground and natural habitat ran out of water.

With their food supply cut off the swans and their offspring have been making sorties into the busy village centre but they have had to pay a heavy price.

Linda Parker, who is a local office worker, says: "As a result of their search for food two cygnets are believed to have been killed.

"A body of one was found. The other was hit by a vehicle and took off down the Corhampton Road, possibly to go off and die somewhere. No body has been found."

A third cygnet was recently injured and is being treated at an animal shelter.

The pair of swans and the remaining cygnet are a sad sight as they settle for making their home on a patch of green near a busy roundabout.

They hassle passers-by for food but it is understood that people have been told to stop feeding them.

Linda says: "They are so desperate for food that they have been wandering further into the village shopping streets."

It is posing a real traffic hazard because she says the swans have been diving out from behind parked cars and buses.

She said: "They are really putting themselves and others in danger."

Linda and her fellow worker Evelyn Mills have on many occasions stepped in to save the feathered wanderers from being run over.

Linda has been so concerned about the swans and cygnets' welfare that she has contacted various swan rescue agencies.

She has been told that to move to a nesting site further afield the swans would need a large water surface from which to take off.

But she said: "There is another pond on the other side of a very busy road which the Swans are reluctant to use because it is often busy with local fisherman and is quite often over crowded with other wildlife."

A spokespwoman for Bishop's Waltham Parish Council said: "We do not have responsibility for the swans but we are concerned about their welfare. We have been in touch with the Swan Rescue Service at Dorset.

"The swans have been wandering into the residential areas and it is causing a traffic hazard because they have been crossing main roads."

n CAN you help the swans? Call Duncan Eaton on 023 8061 4271 or e-mail him at duncan.eaton@soton-echo.co.uk.