When I left for last week’s photo shoot at Squaw Creek NWR, one of the reasons I had decided to go was the large number of Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) that had been counted there … ~80 of them. But once I got there, an updated count was performed and the numbers had quickly increased to 119, which was a record number of Trumpeter Swans for the refuge. And looking back, just a few years ago, a Trumpeter Swan was a rarity at this location!
Unfortunately, most of the swans managed to reside in distant locations on the refuge … you could usually see them, but they were too far away for making good images. But there were a few times when small groups of the swans would go airborne to relocate to another location on the refuge. It was at these times when I was able to make some reasonable images of them. Here are a few of my favorites:
