Tag Archives: swans

Swans On The Move

As we headed down one of the roads in Skagit County on the lookout for the owls, we came to a field that was full of swans. I’m not sure what was interesting them but there seemed to be a steady stream of them taking off and heading south of where we were. A few of them took off directly towards us. The head on view of them getting airborne was really cool. Of course, as soon as I had the camera ready, they were taking off from other locations and not coming towards me.

I was still getting some shots of them as they gained speed if not much altitude. The great thing was that they were keeping it low and building speed before they gradually climbed away. As they crossed the road, they could still be pretty low. I figured a little patience would work in my favor and, sure enough, it wasn’t too long before some of them were taking off towards me. They clearly weren’t coming directly over me as I guess we were enough of a distraction. However, they were coming head on for a while. I missed quite a few shots unfortunately but you only get to see the ones that worked out!

Family of Swans

Swans on the Lake

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When I was still at college (and because I am an old git, I was shooting on film), I spent some summers in Huntingdon, a town in Cambridgeshire that my mum lived in at the time. The river Ouse ran through the town (actually separate Huntingdon from Godmanchester) and there was a park along the river that I walked in frequently. One afternoon I was walking there when a swan took off on the water alongside me and I grabbed a single shot of it that was one I was really happy with. (After I write this, I will go back through my stuff to see if I have a good scan of it to add to the bottom of this post.)

Ever since I have been shooting digitally, I have wanted to get shots of swans flying. However, I haven’t lived in places where swans were very common. That has changed since moving here. There are some wetlands north of here that are heavily populated by swans and I shall be checking them out before too long. However, we do get some swans in Juanita Bay. Nancy and I were out for a walk a while back when three pairs of swans took off from the water near us and flew right by. You can probably guess that I wasn’t carrying a camera that day.

A week or so later, I was back at Juanita Bay with the camera this time and there were swans hanging out in the same area. I thought that, this time, my planning would pay dividends. Sadly, that was not to be. They seemed very content where they were and all I got was pictures of them sleeping, swimming or occasionally stretching their wings. I shall be back for another attempt though.