Strutting their stuff

A beautiful day, with lots of bright winter sunshine. Although it was intensely frosty first thing, there was little wind and by the time I arrived at the Rowing Lake it was reasonably warm. It was a good day for birds. I watched a large flock of long-tailed tits (see extra)  foraging in a willow tree, before my eye was caught by these two swans, which were occupying one of the few unfrozen pools in the lake. They spent most of their time busily preening, mirroring each other's behaviour perfectly. and then would intermittently slap the water with their wings creating a mass of droplets or rise up to their full height out of the water.  At first I thought that this might have been courtship behaviour, but on close examination it's clear they're two males, so I can only assume that they were showing off to each other!

Further on I spotted a water rail swimming towards some reeds on the margin of the river backwater. I managed to capture one hasty shot before it disappeared, but waited on the bridge till it re-emerged. It swam back towards the opposite bank (see extra), but about half way across it spotted me and took a short flight before landing in the next clump of reeds, where it emitted its characteristic pig-like squeal. Water rails are notoriously hard to see, as they spend most of their lives skulking in dense vegetation. I've only seen them here a couple of times before, and many years ago, so it was good to confirm that they're still around.