whooper swans

as promised

I went out to Skatval - a village further in the fjord, not far past Hell and Stjrdal - with the mid-week birders group that day. Obviously a clear, cold day. Our first stop was at a garden where the owner, who works as a naturalist for Stjrdal municipality, has several feeders. Only Bullfinches...

Two Whooper Swans on the far side of the broch.

My favourite swans these Whoopers, so pretty with their lovely yellow bills. There was a family of them over the far side, by the reed bed, not far from where the Bittern was hanging out. I'm having laptop issues this morning, so hopefully I'll get this uploaded today, then I'll have to try...

Whooper Swans in flight

This part of Lake Kussharo is completely frozen over except for a small patch where a hot spring flows into the lake. The Whooper Swans congregate here.

Parts of the lake are completely frozen over. Winds keep the rest of the lake open but the rough waters drive ice up on the shore making hard for the swans to feed in shallow water.

This pair were flying nr my house this morning and once I had it confirmed they were Whooper Swans it means they are a new lifer for me well pleased.

More FOS targets ticked off! From Backwater we moved down to Lintrathen Loch and were pleased to see a small group of Whoopers had come in, including some youngsters.

I was on the way back to the car as the light was failing, when a few groups of these Swans were returning to roost.

Another pair of Whoopers on the lake.

this was taken last week when more whoopers arrived.not been down this week hopefully going tomorrow.i saw around 30 last week supposed to be nearly 80 now i will let you know but we do get quite a few whooper swans here.

yes you guessed it the first pair with young were trying to show their dominance and protect their young.i found this great to watch.only been here a week and already at home and believe me they showed these new whoopers we were here first just like the mutes did with them last week.

well more whoopers arrived today and the first pair with young are not to happy.this pic was taken as they arrived today.we get alot of whoopers here and a joy to see them return.

this pair arrived last week here with their young and the resident mutes were not happy.the mutes seem to have got accustomed to them and are taking their young own young on tours to different parts now but will the whoopers get peace now.

As the light began to go, a group of Whoopers took off down to the other end of the reserve. They eventually got into an orderly line, but by then were too far an any sort of usable picture LOL. Their numbers are falling fast - the other day I only found 2, but there were probably some more...

....as he tells me he's not seen any yet! I guess he must live in the wrong part of Norway LOL. What a shame that such gorgeous swans. Anyway I hope you all enjoy looking at this lovely group. They'll be away north before too long I suppose, unfortunately.

Took both cameras with me to the falls a week ago Sunday, but didn't really get any comparison shots. This one was with the Nikon. Got a few shots of the whoopers swimming away as we arrived, then they were too far off and eventually they flew whooping overhead and were gone altogether.

Painted from photos after a visit to Minsmere in January

Whooper Swans

The time before when I was at the falls, another photographer there expressed disappointment that there were no swans. This time, the swans were there but he wasn't ;) I enjoyed both visits, the two of which will be my primary source of posts for a while.

I'm not a Mahler fan, and I sincerely hope there was no blood sacrificing going on here, but it does look ballet-like, as swans tend to do. I'd have gone with Swan Lake (I'm rather fonder of Tschaikovsky), but there's no lake here, and there is something ritual about preening and flapping. ;)

We'd been further up-river, looking for tufties when we met an equally disappointed but far better equipped birder. He saw lapwings on the far shore, which I'd missed. Then we swapped tips. I told him of the first winter pair of whoopers in a stream just around the bend. He told us to watch for...