I was visiting friends who have a home on the Shrewsbury River on the coast of NJ. They had been telling me about a pair of swans that came by once or twice a day. Bird Lady that I am, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of them while I was there.
Wouldn't you know, but I hadn't even sat down yet when a pair of swans came a-swimming along... followed by another pair... and another... until a total of nine graceful swans were swimming by the house. My host told me to go on out to the dock and the swans would come up close - looking for food, of which I had none. I did. They did. And so you have some close-up photos of these beautiful birds on the water.
Before I even left home this morning, I managed to capture Mr. Cardinal a couple of times...
All in all, a pretty good birding day, wouldn't you say?!!!
6 comments:
Pat, did you realize that you have two different species of swan there? The ones with the orange and black beaks are mute swans. The one with the all black beak is a trumpeter! They used to be non-existant in the lower 48. A neighbor of mine is one of the people responsible for reintroducing them to Michigan and, since the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary is right down the road, we ended up with a pair on our pond. Unfortunately the male killed himself while swimming- he bit the electric fence. Thankfully Joe Johnson was able to get the female to remate (very unusual).
Thanks for the great pictures!!
teri
I was going to pipe up about the two species but Teri beat me. When I lived in the Lpwer Hudson Valley region of NY, I took part in enumerating mute swans that wintered on the huge systems of resevoirs that serve NYC.
HUNDREDS and hundreds would be gathered in several areas for most of the winter. Come late March, the multitudes would depart leaving one or two nesting pairs on each pond or lake in the system. Wonderful to behold.
I'd definitely say you had a good birding day!
I love your bird pictures! I would be thrilled to see them so close. We sit in our back yard and watch hawks, but there aren't any nearby swans. Jen
Wow. Thank you all for your kind words of appreciation. Special thanks to Teri & Deb for their teachings on Swans. I had to go explore more swan medicine after that, of course. More on that in my next posting!
Awesome. And I love cardinals =)
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