Trumpeter Swans

[2naSalit]

Last edited Mon Jan 25, 2016, 01:16 PM - Edit history (1)

at +10F a couple days ago..









This one is odd as the birds are just below the treetops in the foreground, they were quite a distance away.

[pscot]

1. Well done

Great pictures.

[2naSalit]

3. Thanks.

I love taking pictures and the landscape/wildlife are just so phenomenal around here, it almost feels like cheating.

Had complete sundogs lately... it's been pretty cold, -23F this morning and only getting up around +10 or +15F for the high temps, just a little too nippy for me to go skiing dangit. But the vehicle starts and all this scenery is just down the road a piece.

[elleng]

2. Great work AGAIN!

[2naSalit]

4. Thanks!

And Happy New Year!

[elleng]

5. Waiting for 'my' swans to return,

they're not Trumpeters I think, but appeared last 2 winters on creek adjacent to my house.

Happy New Year to you too!

[2naSalit]

6. "Our" swans

are more numerous and noticeable in winter, being on the volcano (Yellowstone) the rivers receive so much hot water that they don't freeze until it's well below -40F. So the swans, requiring open water, hang around here instead of migrating to a warmer coastal place. there's a huge USFWS preserve for the Trumpeters about 30 miles up the road from where I took these pictures along the Haney's Fork of the upper Snake River in Idaho... I live just over the divide in Montana.

[NV Whino]

7. Oh nice shots!

I particularly like the first one. Magnificent birds.

[2naSalit]

9. That's my favorite too

then the third one.

[Binkie The Clown]

8. I don't want to look at anything that starts with the letters "T R U M P"

Just kidding. They are beautiful shots of beautiful birds.

[2naSalit]

10. Ha! Didn't think of that

but I see your point!

They are so graceful and have an iridescence in all that white. I love to take pictures of them when they're around.

[alfredo]

11. I like the third. Takes me back to the Miocene.

[Solly Mack]

12. I love them!

[Tipperary]

13. How beautiful! Where is this?

[2naSalit]

14. Thank you

These were taken along USHWY20, just north of the entrance to Harriman State Park (Henry's Fork) of the Snake River-Idaho. It's about 25 miles from Yellowstone Park's west entrance.

[Tipperary]

15. I had no idea swans live in that area.

Those pictures are breath-taking.

[2naSalit]

16. They live here year-round

They require open water full time. In the Yellowstone area there's open water due to all the hot water that emerges from thousands of locations around the ecosystem. Just over the divide from the western border of the park, in Centennial Valley, Montana (but you have to go through a bit of Idaho to get to it) is a huge wildlife preserve for the swans called Red Rocks NWR. It's where there are massive flocks right now. It's a long dirt road out there but there are also several ranches in the valley... but they come out to the Henry's fork and into parts of Yellowstone to forage for the aquatic vegetation and, perhaps, a change of scenery and respite from the crowds.





That said, we see them mostly in winter, there was only one breeding pair inside the park last year and the year prior.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. You have so much more snow than we do.

These are beautiful photos but make me sad for Alaska's lost winters.

[2naSalit]

18. Indeed...

I find it uncomfortable to see how warm it is in Alaska. We didn't get much snow last winter, this season we got a good start, then it got cold. Today it was almost +40F and has been in the teens above zero the last three nights. We're getting a few flurries of wet stuff to add some moisture back into the denuded stuff dried out by the severe cold we had last month.

I hope we have a good snow year and I hope you do too, it's vital that the tundra and all the high latitudes receive enough cold and snow cover.

I guess our winters are becoming intermittent.

[Blue_In_AK]

19. Conditions are terrible here.

The last couple of days have been beautiful and sunny, but you can't walk anywhere because everything is a sheet of ice. We took the dog for a walk in our neighborhood park yesterday and even there we had to really watch our step...little tufts of grass surrounded by ice on all sides. I'm so glad I mulched my gardens really well in the fall or I'd probably lose half my perennials.

[2naSalit]

20. Yikes.

I saw those pictures of your garden a week or so ago, unbelievable.

[Blue_In_AK]

21. Here's the park yesterday

You can see the walkways are just a sheet of ice, and although you can't really tell from this picture, all of the grass is surrounded by ice. Everything white is ice, not snow.