On the warpath!

That's what the male swan is on when he looks like this. It wasn't a gull that was the problem this time though, instead it was the geese. There is an ongoing feud between the swans and a pair of resident greylag geese which the swans always win, but the geese enjoy teasing them.

Go large to see those wings better.

I recently saw a hilarious encounter between the geese and the swans: in the swans' absence, the geese went onto the island which is the swans' nesting place and therefore their sacrosanct territory. When the swans noticed this, the male made a beeline for the island with his wings like this. The geese jumped about with glee until the swan got back to the island whereupon they jumped into the water and swam away as fast as they could. Wish I could have filmed it!