IN the peace and tranquillity of a protected Southampton beauty spot, a swan glided serenely across the water, guarding its nestful of cygnets.

The Lower Test haven for water fowl was a picture of a hazy English summer's day.

But the image was cruelly shattered when a bloodied, desperate swan was spotted floundering in the marshes.

It had been repeatedly shot in the head with an airgun and was slowly floating away from its nesting mate.

River keeper Martin Donovan, 40, called the RSPCA but it was too late.

"The swan had blood all over its head," he said. "It looked like it had been shot about half a dozen times in the head and was drifting out to the Solent, leaving its mate sitting on her nest.

"It was very distressed and almost certainly will die."

He added that the nesting swan, a species protected by special penalties under UK wildlife law, would also run into difficulties without her mate.

The vicious target practice attack comes only days after a cow was peppered with airgun pellets at the 386-acre site of special scientific interest.

A police spokesman said it was being regarded as a "very dangerous incident," but added that witnesses who saw the attack did not have a good enough description of the youths to take the search further.

"These shootings seem to be a one-off, but if we get more information about the perpetrators it will treated as extremely serious," she added.

Mr Donovan said the cow would be OK - but the incident tops a catalogue of vandalism and antisocial behaviour at the nature reserve, home to rare warblers, kingfishers, geese and ducks.

"We have had a lot of trouble with kids. I am forever throwing teenagers off the land," said the warden, who has been keeping watch over the site for five years.

"It's absolutely covered with beer bottles and broken glass. "It's pretty horrific when you see it, it's like a war zone. And when kids start walking around with guns you don't know what's going to happen."

He wants to see better fencing put up around the area, increased policing and he is urging local ramblers, fishermen and residents to keep an eye out for the vandals.

"It's a beautiful place but it's being spoilt by a minority of vandals," he said.