The one year old 'juvenile' swans moulting

Our friends B. and G. came to stay yesterday for two nights stopping over on their way home to Lincolnshire after a family visit to Somerset. It was great to see them and share many laughs, tales, food and wine and then finally some whisky, rather too late at night.

I'd promised them a trip today to the lake so that G. could get in his walking miles and B. could do some sketching out in nature. We were late (hungover? Maybe) getting out after breakfast. Sadly Helena had a long and busy day of work in two places so could only join us for the end of day's repa,st which was similar to the previous evening.
 
At the lake it was glorious – sunny, quiet, rich with wildlife and a delight for us all. I've chosen to blip this scene as it shows my regular spot for photographing the birdlife on the lake at Frampton Court. It is a short promontory that projects about twenty yards out from the edge of the lake where I was standing. I usually stand at the far end of the promontory, and had done so a short while earlier. 

After a stroll around the lake I returned to this spot to find this gathering of swans where B. and I had earlier commented that it seemed to be a scene of carnage. On reflection I now think that these are the same ten first year juvenile male swans which I'd recently blipped here, when I was standing at the end of the promontory. I'd noticed their upper feathers still had the mottled colours of a juvenile. Sometimes when I've tried to return to the'edge of the lake, I'd found my way blocked by a gaggle of swans in this same spot whiuch was quite unnerving. 

All the swans we saw around the lake seemed to be struggling in varied ways to moult. I think that is why there is this mass of feathers in this spot, which I've always noticed is a regular gathering point for them,