Category: Swans

New Year's Day River Float

1/2/2021

Dale Mills and I started out the new year with a bit of paddling on the Winnebago River down river from the discharge area of the water treatment plant. We made it 1.8 miles before we got to ice-over, but it was at a convenient take-out place to get a ride back the vehicle (Judy's shuttle service). It was a beautiful day, overcast but with no wind and mid 20's temperature. It was a quiet float except for hundreds of noisy Canada Geese and ducks. We saw wild turkeys in trees and along the river bank, five Bald Eagles, a Kingfisher that flew from tree to tree just ahead of us down the river and 13 Trumpeter Swans that got up off the river and flew noisily right over our heads. A great way to start the new year!
[Click or tap to see the individual images larger.]

1 Comment

Yellowstone in Winter Video

1/31/2020

4 Comments

Here is a short video of wildlife, waterfalls, geysers and thermal features taken during our five-day trip to Yellowstone National Park in mid-January 2020 with the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) photo tour. (At the end of this, YouTube will probably take you to a page with a whole bunch of videos that aren't mine. Sorry. Just reload the page or click the back-button to get back here.) See also the Yellowstone in Winter photo gallery linked from the previous blog post.

4 Comments

Trumpeter Swans

3/11/2019

0 Comments

Today I had the opportunity to take a few photos of Trumpeter Swans in a private backyard pond in north Iowa. It seems that Spring should be here soon, but we still have several feet of snow most places. The corn fields are covered with snow and and most of the lakes and rivers are still frozen over, but these several swans, Canada Geese and Mallards found a small spot of open water in this pond and settled in. Photos taken from the deck of the homeowner's house.
[Click Images to see larger]

0 Comments

Nature Travels - Video

1/16/2015

5 Comments

When I am out photographing birds, wildlife and landscapes I occasionally shoot some video at the same time. Here is a little video sampler of some of our photo adventures over the past few years. The still photos can be found throughout this web site.

Nature Travels with Bruce G. McKee from BruceGMcKeePhotos on Vimeo.

5 Comments

Find my photos on Facebook

5/13/2014

0 Comments

I gave in. I finally decided to post some pictures on Facebook also. Go to my Facebook page then click the Like or Follow button and you can stay updated on some of my photo adventures. Of course you will need to log in to Facebook to see them. -
https://www.facebook.com/brucegmckeephotos

0 Comments

Tundra Swans

11/12/2013

2 Comments

Tundra Swans Quartet - Click for larger image

The Tundra Swans are migrating. They start their journey from their summer breeding grounds in Western Alaska, Northern Yukon and Northwest Territories and fly diagonally across Canada and the United States to spend the Winter in the Chesapeake Bay area and the Atlantic Coast of Virginia and North Carolina. Tens of thousands of them stop off along the Mississippi River in Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa to rest and feed for a few days or weeks before they continue their flight.
Saturday I went up to a viewing area about three miles South of Brownsville, MN which I think is one of the better places to see and Hear(!) the Tundra Swans fairly close. There are other places along the river to see the swans in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin from early November until around Thanksgiving depending on the weather. The sound of thousands of Tundra Swans is hard to describe, somewhat like honking geese, but very musical. While they are gregarious and rarely fly alone, they are also very territorial when they are feeding and will aggressively confront others. Their skirmishes with one or several other birds will take them chest to chest out of the water, stretching their necks and beaks as high as they can, loudly vocalizing the entire time. Quite a sight to see and hear (photo above).
For a couple of weekends in November there are naturalists at the Brownsville viewing area and across the river in Wisconsin south of Goose Island to answer questions. There was a pretty good crowd with binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras all day long (I imagine all weekend). The light was challenging with heavy overcast much of the day, but I got lots of photos of the swans flying and feeding. As they come in for their landing they are very graceful flying through the air, but then, rather than quickly settling down in to the water like most geese and ducks they sort of run across the top of the water, sometimes taking a couple of steps across the water with their big webbed feet and then sort of skipping back up in to the air and then a few more steps before finally landing with a splash. Sometimes they slide on their big feet like water skis. Fun to watch and hear.
See more photos of the Tundra Swans (and some of Trumpeter Swans taken earlier).
Iowa photographers Linda and Robert Scarth were also taking pictures the day I was there. We had a nice chat and I think entertained some of the spectators with all of our camera equipment. You can see some of their photos on their wonderful blog at http://scarthphoto.com/wp/

2 Comments

New Year's Day River Float

Yellowstone in Winter Video

Trumpeter Swans

Nature Travels - Video

Find my photos on Facebook

Tundra Swans

Bruce's Blog

Archives

Categories