On Sunday I spent a beautiful spring morning with friends from The Wildlife Art Society International, at Coombe Country Park in Coventry.

We had hoped to see plenty of herons nesting, but this year's heronry was rather diminished, with more cormorants than herons for some reason.
Still, we did see plenty of spring blossoms starting to come out, and heard the chiff-chaff for the first time this year, along with Brimstone and Comma butterflies and ladybirds all coming out in the warm sunshine.

The mute swans were nesting, and we watched two pairs of swans quite close to each other on the large lake. The male swans were making a territorial display to each other, posturing to ensure their breeding spaces were recognised.
I find this sort of behaviour very interesting to put into a picture, so I'm sure it will form part of a future painting.