They say a picture tells a thousand words, and these stunning images of a group of cygnets growing up on the river in Wimborne do just that.

Captured in amazing clarity in their natural environment, the photos, taken by keen wildlife photographer Mark Nicolaides, show the trials and tribulations of the family, right through to the moment the cygnets take flight.

The experience, which took Mark, 45, several months, left him so moved by the swans’ plight, that he put the collection of photos into a book telling their story.

He is now hoping to share the experience, which includes never-before-seen swan behaviour, with as many people as he can, to show that their lives are not hugely dissimilar to humans.

“I’ve been into photography since the late 1980s, and I’ve always been interested in wildlife,” says Mark, who lives in Poole and has a day job as a physics teacher.

“I’ve always wondered what animals do - the lives of them. They have their own lives.

“I’ve been very interested in swans. I thought I would study this pair of swans from before the eggs hatched until they flew off.

“I was completely accepted by the family of swans. I got to know them intimately, I was able to be among them - the cygnets ran across my lap.”

Mark made sure he always wore the same clothes, ate the same type of food, and made sure never to wear aftershave in a bid to gain the trust of the birds.

He was rewarded when they allowed him to witness their everyday life, including the tragedy of losing one of their young.

“I arrived one morning and they were coming up the river and I only counted five cygnets - they had six initially,” he says.

“I thought I had missed one. I could see where they were heading so I went to where they were resting and there was a dead cygnet there. I photographically recorded them arriving where the dead cygnet was.

“It was probably too weak to go for the morning swim. It was left there, they came back and it had been attacked. Mum and dad had not seen the dead one yet. Mum came and had a look and then she buried it.”

Mark captured the moment the mother swan covered her cygnet with grass and reeds - a behaviour which has never been recorded, or even witnessed before.

“I couldn’t believe what was happening right before me,” says Mark.

“One of the babies came up and had a look at it and went to sleep next to it. After the burial, the swans were really subdued for the rest of the day - they acknowledged what happened. When that happened I thought I had got to write the whole thing up and do something with these pictures. People needed to see it.”

Mark, who named the parent swans Kay and Kub, decided to set up a website dedicated to the project, swanlife.com, and then to put together the book, Swan Story.

He witnessed behaviours including the moulting process, watched Kub defend his young by fighting off intruders, and even the moment when the cygnets learnt to fly.

“I had seen these cygnets grow up,” he says, “I felt an emotional link with them. There was one cygnet in particular that used to like coming to sit with me. He would come and sit right beside me and fall asleep next to me, the same as the dad would.

“I would sit with them in the shallow water while they were learning to fly and they would fly around me as if they wanted to splash me.”

Mark, who has since undertaken a similar project with a family of Roe deer, says he felt privileged the swans allowed him to share their story, and now wants others to see the parallels between their lives and ours.

“I’ve got this belief that it’s almost as if they wanted their story to be told,” he says.

“That’s why I want people to read the book. It’s a wonderful story about nature that everyone can relate to - it’s a story of life. It’s made men and women cry because it touches them.

“I would love people to see for themselves. I want them to see the swan life story.”

• Find out more at swanlife.com