Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A day with the Swans

Today I visited the Swans' nest at an undisclosed location here in Tidewater, Virginia. This is my fourth visit to the nest site and finally cygnets were coming into the world. Below you can see Mama Swan sitting in the nest where she had already spent more than 30 days. What does she have here? How many are there? When I got there this morning there were only six, it appears that by the end of the day there were 8 according to another photographer that also monitors the site.
A closer look...the young ones are gray in color and chirp most of the time. They stay under the mother's wings waiting for the unborn siblings. Once the whole batch of cygnets are born the mom leaves the nest right away. So perhaps by tomorrow the nest will be abandoned.


The male is always nearby at a minute's call. This morning he may have fallen sleep since two Canadian swans came within 5 feet of the nest; the female did not seem to be bothered by them.
But as soon as the male noticed he flew in and started posturing to scare the Canadian Swans away.

It appears that the posturing did not bother the Canadian geese so eventually the male swam charged the Canadian geese away. It appears that there was a bit of posturing before an actual fight began. It happened, and the male swan can be seen chasing the Canada geese.

I must thank Mr. Dave Tuttle who was kind enough to share the location of the nest. And Joan who gave me guidance on how to put together an article in a blog.




12 comments:

Unknown said...

what a great little story and wonderful shots to accomodate. I especially like the second shot down. Shows the great tenderness of the mothering instinct. hope all is well with you! b-

SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

This is a wonderful post Jose. I am so glad if I made things a bit easier for you.

What a wonderful sequence of events to observe and photograph. You have captured it so well too.

Those chicks are adorable and I love the reflection in the first picture. I hope you are going to watch their growth and record it too.

Mary said...

Hello...I came over from Joan's blog. Lovely swans and the little ones are so cute! How terrific that you can watch them this close.

Andrea said...

I like the whole serie,but I find the last picture absolutely great.
Bye

Tim Rucci said...

Really nice shots, Jose. The chicks are so cute...

Ken Conger Photography said...

Great series Jose. The shots are great as always. Blue Skies.

Atanasio Fernández García said...

Hola José, una serie excelente de esta bella especie, me gustan especialmente las imágenes en las que aparecen los polluelos y la escena de acción en la que el cisne aleja del territorio a la Barnacla (Canadian geese). Un saludo!

Coy Hill said...

Excellent series. You did a great job capturing the exciting interaction between the swan and the Canada goose.

Les Barr said...

Very good Images of the Swans. They don't take to kindly of intruders. They will probably even chase you, if you get too close.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jose, it makes me want to run out, buy a new camera and an airline ticket! Cheryl

Lots for sale in Costa Rica said...

Beautiful animals, thanks for the photos, are amazing.

Anonymous said...

FWIW, it was actually an undisclosed Nikonista who shared this undisclosed location with you Canonistas.