Swan Male Building Nest

Alice and I, over several weeks, were impressed by how hard our male Swan worked to help in building the couple's nest. Hour after hour he would swim off hunting for twigs and reeds that he would carefully bring back to the edge of the nest. We never once saw him try to build the nest himself, trusting this responsibly to his beautiful mate who painstakingly, first built their nest of large twigs, then smaller twigs, and finally lined the nest with grass and reeds. Our male Swan was at first territorial with us, occasionally coming over to softly hiss at us, but we were careful not to get too close nor to move quickly. Magically, over a few weeks, he decided that we were not a threat. I say magically, as later we were privileged to witness five Cygnets successfully hatch and begin to learn to swim with the Swan couple being increasingly willing to paddle their family quite close to our small boat as the male Swan seemed almost attached to us and proud to show off his family. Canon 1DX Mark 2 mounting an EF 800mm lens on a Manfrotto Tripod at f/11 at 1/200th of a second.