08 June 2009

Family portraits, Cygnus buccinator

The Metro Zoo has, down in the Canadian Domain pond, a breeding pair of trumpeter swans. This year, the adults are lacking the big yellow wing flashes indicating zoo ownership; don't know if this is a change of policy, it's too early in the season for someone to have risked their life to apply the big yellow wing flashes indicating which swan this is, or if this year, it's a wild pair who have taken over the pond. (Certainly the cob seemed rather more aggressive toward the geese this spring than in previous years; actually launched, and my but a low-flying swan can look malevolent.)
Both parents and four cygnets (there's another couple of eggs still in the nest, but given the size of the cygnets I would not hold much hope for them), over by the reedy margin of the south-east-ish corner of the pond.
Swans are not (that I have ever heard) supposed to have exceptional vision for birds; they still seem to notice camera lenses right quick.
Middle-front cygnet attempts dabbling, with a lack of success limited by the inherent buoyancy of being a baby swan, and thus made of air and fluff.
Air and fluff and big paddle feet; no idea what it was, but it certainly must have looked tasty.

Trumpeters remain something of a photographic challenge; glare white and absorptive black on a reflective surface is at least a legitimate photographic challenge.

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