There’s five or six pairs of swans on the lake at West Park which have been performing the courtship ritual with each other: some started before the new year. But, with geese and ducks also in contention, there just aren’t that many good nesting sites. In good years, two pairs of swans will manage to raise cygnets; in others, just one.
So good nest sites are at a premium. Of the sites visible from the footpaths, the one which seems to be chosen first is a beach on boating lake island, a sheltered patch of bare soil which is in sun for much of the day. This swan pair had begun to occupy that space, and were busy plucking some of the feathers from their chests, a contribution to the nesting material.