Six cygnets hatch to Schaumburg swans

Memorial Day was not the only sign of summer's return this week.

Six cygnets hatched to parent swans Louis and Serena in Schaumburg and are already learning to paddle around the village's municipal pond.

They're expected to grow up to follow in their parents' webbed footsteps and adopt a career in geese control.

For the next couple of months, though, they'll have to rely on Louis and Serena to keep them safe from such dangers as birds of prey from above and snapping turtles from below.

By late summer, they'll be large enough to hold their own against such would-be aggressors. Though they won't be raising families of their own for a few more years, their parents will be on their own again next summer looking after a new brood.