Another quickie

This will be a quick post of a series of images of a mute swan that I shot as she chased an interloper away from her nest.

Female mute swan starting after an interloper

The female must have made a poor choice in mates, usually the male will chase any intruders away, but he left it to the female.

Female mute swan starting after an interloper

I thought about zooming out to keep both swans in the frame…

Female mute swan starting after an interloper

…but this was my chance for close-ups of a single swan in motion.

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

I also thought about going to a faster shutter speed, but I didn’t really have time to do so…

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

…and I like the amount of motion blur that’s in these images…

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

…while freezing the action enough so that the swan’s head and eye are good and sharp.

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

I may have cut off her wings slightly…

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

…but I was concentrating on keeping the single focus point where it needed to be…

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

…while following the action.

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

 

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

 

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

 

Female mute swan chasing an interloper away

With the chase over, I couldn’t resist shooting this photo.

Female red-winged blackbird watching the action

With the female swan off chasing the intruder away, the male went to the nest to make sure that the eggs were protected, I’m hoping to see cygnets soon.

Mute swan eggs, along with the male swan’s foot for size

Here’s the male on the nest, I was worried that he may come after me, but he didn’t.

Male mute swan ready to protect the eggs

I was a little surprised that the male didn’t cover the eggs immediately, but when the female returned, I learned something.

Both swans on the nest

After carefully inspecting the eggs as you can see in the photo above, she spent several minutes drying herself off before finally settling back down to cover the eggs. That makes sense after I had watched her, the water is still cold and may have harmed the eggs if she had gotten them wet. Once the female had settled back down on the nest, the male hung around, picking up some more dried reeds and dropping them where the female could reach them, and she used them to fortify the nest, and to make herself more comfortable while she incubates the eggs.

Of course I have no way of knowing how old these swans are, but I’ve found it odd that the male doesn’t stick closer to the nest than he does. In my visits to the area, he’s often completely out of sight, leaving the female completely alone, which I’ve found odd from having watched swans before. It was also odd that he didn’t chase the intruder away also.

I do know that a pair of swans built a nest in the same general area last year, and that eggs were laid in the nest. However, that nest was abandoned with the eggs still in it. So, I wonder if these are two very young swans just learning how to be parents? Also, I don’t know if this is the same pair as the one that abandoned the nest last year.

One quick personal note, I’ve made the final payment on my medical bills from my hospital stay two years ago. That’s a relief. That means that I can begin saving money for the fall vacation that I have scheduled, which I’m really looking forward to, as it will be my first vacation in three years!

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!

Advertisement