On several recent visits to West Park, I’ve noticed a swan on the same patch of the shore of West Park’s boating lake island, always industriously preening. Usually there is another swan offshore, patrolling the area.
Possibly they are the swan pair which had been mating in the water nearby earlier, now getting ready to occupy the patch for their nest.
Two or even three other pairs of mature swans are acting as if they are staking claims at other points near the edge of this or the other island as nesting spots. The park might just be getting a bumper crop of cygnets for 2017.