Drama at the Nature Sanctuary
A gentle, graceful swan . . . or not?
A few days ago, Michelle and I decided to head out for a walk. It was a lovely day and both of us thought the same thing . . . bring along the camera. So off we went. First to a small, nearby side street where we thought we might see some trilliums. That turned out to be a great call as they were in full bloom.
A few photos to share:
Trilliums in Bloom
Up Close
There’s Always an Outlier
What a relaxing sight, and a good start to the outing. The flowers and the weather were perfect. After wandering around for a while, we headed on.
Next stop was the nearby nature sanctuary with a beaver pond, trails and hopefully some birds. This is the Nawautin Nature Sanctuary, also a feature in this post by John Charlton.
As it turned out, we got a lot more than we bargained for . . .
It all started about a minute along the trail with some geese with goslings. Beautiful to see!
The Little Ones
They could steal the show!
But, alas, all was not going well and we quickly figured out that it wasn’t us. There was trouble on the horizon for the little ones . . . looming out in the water . . .
The Swan
The swan looks innocent enough, right?
Looking closer, we see the fluffed up wings making a lovely heart shape. Here’s another image, below. The swan shape you would see at a kid’s ride at a theme park or maybe as an image on a romantic card. We’ll it seems that what it really means is that the swan is puffing up to look more threatening. Hmmm.
Look Big and Threatening
Then the honking and scurrying started.
The Drama Begins
Tongue out and honking!
The safe spot for the geese appeared to be in the water, with the goslings huddled close by.
Stay Close By
The drama went on for quite a while with the swan closing in again and again.
Looming Swan
Following this initial showdown, one goose took the lead to lure the swan away. The chase began.
On the Run
The chase scene went on all around the pond several times. The swan could swim faster than the goose, so periodically the goose would make short flights to keep in front. But not too far. The goal continued to be to lure the swan away from the rest of the family.
At our last Northumberland Photo Club meeting we had a great presentation by one of our members, Tony, about shooting video. This is something I rarely do.
So, . . . I thought I should try it out, learn and adjust. Here is a 12 second video of what the chase looked like.
The Chase Scene
I thought it was insightful to capture and look back through the video to pick up on the details of the fast moving action. Shooting was a bit awkward since I was using my camera, weighed down with a 180-600 mm zoom lens and the action moved around quickly. Maybe a lighter set up next time . . .
The rest of the walk around the nature sanctuary was calmer, even though the antics between the swan and the geese carried on in the background. Here is a red-winged blackbird, surveying intently near the edge of the pond.
Red-winged Blackbird
The whole time the drama was unfolding, things remained calm back at the nests.
Nesting Swan
Nesting Goose
My image of swans as gentle, graceful birds has now been shattered. Reflecting back on the action, we tried to figure out why all the drama took place and why there couldn’t be peace between the swans and geese. In the end, we couldn’t really pin it down. I guess humans haven’t figured that out amongst themselves around the world either . . .
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the show. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
Until next time,
Andy
I meant to add that I really like your shot of the orange faced swan floating menacingly close to the goslings. Scary stuff. And the shot directly under On the Run is also a great capture of this confrontational behaviour. I don't think the goslings were swimming last weekend. On the Friday, I didn't see them at all. No trilliums were out yet on the Sunday.
Quelle coincidence! That's amazing we posted about the same thing at the same place on the same day, here on Substack with no knowledge of what each other was doing. What was with all that drama between the swan and the geese? It took me all week to narrow down my images to keep the post as short as possible, but in the end I figure I might have been better to split it in two, there is just so much going on there. I wondered the same thing about the swan. What is your problem? I can only think the swans were there first and he's a grumpy old sod. Ecologically speaking, the mute swan is actually the intruder here. An invasive species from Eurasia, brought to North America as an ornamental which subsequently escaped or was released to the wild. Maybe he thinks he is a native trumpeter swan. He certainly was acting like a Trump.