swan behaviour

[Jules001]

At a local lake today, we saw three swans, one of which appeared to just be a bystander in the activities, but the other two had their necks quite firmly entangled which looked like some act of courtship, however one of the swans presumably the female was then forcibly pushed and held under the water. This went on for quite some time, I assumed they were mating, but it did look fairly brutal and the female didn't seem to be trying to get away even when she had the chance, is this normal mating procedure or did I witness something else, a fight maybe or territorial dominance?

Jules

[nigel_b]

It sounds like it might be dominant and subordinant males sorting it out between themselves rather than male and female.