And so, part two of the visit to Mattamuskeet National Widlife Refuge, focusing entirely on the one species that made a cameo in the first. The foreshadowing of the day came early on, when we saw a pair of birds far in the distance crossing the road.
This is cropped from the full frame at 600mm, so suffice to say I wasn’t identifying them based on what I saw in the viewfinder, though if I’d done more research on the area I should have known, since it’s notorious for hosting them in the winter. The gradual reveal to us, however, was fairly classic.
Again cropped, though less so, but shot across the car (The Girlfriend was driving) out the window and across the flood plain alongside the drive. Here, you can just make out the typical swan ‘nose bridge’ of the beak.
Finally, a pair got close enough and unobscured by reeds to make a decent portrait.
Enough suspense; these are tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus,) quite fond of Lake Mattamuskeet and usually overwintering there. Had we gone down in this direction on the first visit twenty years (shy two weeks) ago, this would not have been my first views of swans in the wild, and don’t ask me how I’ve gone that long without ever seeing one. I could have gone longer too, had we delayed this trip a little more, since they’re about ready to migrate north for nesting season.
But yes, I appreciated the mirrored pose.
Overall, most of the photo opportunities were largely the same, swans milling about at a moderate distance and not doing a lot. I snagged a few frames as a pair flew past, again, still distant, but several times closer than the initial view.
And then, getting still closer as we drove along, taking care not to spook them too much, which is now laughable, since they didn’t pay the slightest attention to the drive.
Eventually we got to one of the observation platforms that looked out over the flood plain, getting up above the grasses and able to see better. It was well placed, because there was more open water there and thus the swans (and numerous other species) were congregating in clusters stretched across a few hundred meters in width and depth from us.
Here we started doing some recording, because the calls of the swans (that had been gradually getting more noticeable as we drove) were now distinct, a great sound that i couldn’t decide was more reminiscent of distant coyotes or a bunch of rowdy cowboys. I’ll let you decide:
Tundra swans and others at Mattamuskeet NWR
You can hear the camera in there of course, since The Girlfriend was now wielding the mic, and a little wind noise that the dead cat didn’t quite eradicate even though it did reduce it significantly. If you’re sharp-eared, you might pick out calls from other species in there – I know I could hear the American coots from time to time – but mostly you’re hearing the swans. And a minor altercation that the damn autofocus kept snagging the grasses in front of, so I have no pics of it, only the audio.
Here and there, I spotted the dirtier coloration of a yearling, according to the birder we met there – I wasn’t familiar enough with the species to know how their plumage changed with age and season, but this is just about it.
They may get a little darker than the specimen on the left when they’re even younger, but that happens in their breeding areas, way up north of here, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever see that phase. After their first year, they become the pure white with very subtle variations seen in the rest f the images
Another gave one of the few active displays while we were there (which was roughly midday,) standing up and flapping vigorously for a few seconds.
I actually have four frames that make it look as if it’s conducting a symphony, too few to make an animated gif from.
Male? Female? no idea, though we do have a couple more snoozing Northern shovelers (Spatula clypeata) in the foreground.
As we were driving back out, we noticed a pair of swans had now moved across the bordering channel and were in the grasses right alongside the drive, so we approached quite slowly, pausing as I fired off frames. We go out of order here and show the second, completely unconcerned with the car not seven meters away, posed on one foot philosophically.
That one was beyond the first, which was lying deeper in the grass and appeared to be far spookier, so we took our time in approaching while I cataloged this vehicular stalking.
The amount of yellow on the base of the bill doesn’t indicate anything and can vary a decent amount, though apparently the European variant typically shows more.
As we got alongside this one, it remained wary and appeared to be issuing a warning hiss, though we were close enough to hear it if it did, and no sound at all was issued.
And then, it stretched up a little taller and began surveying out across the water, so it was less concerned with our presence than it appeared at first, and our careful approach wasn’t really necessary – especially since we had drifted to the other side of the drive to avoid stressing it, and a passing car zoomed between us in a decidedly incautious manner that provoked no response from the swan.
But this minor change in pose allowed a little more light to cross its face and make for a more distinctive portrait, and I was fine with that.
As I said in the previous post, the worst part was that the light was uniformly behind all the waterfowl, something that really couldn’t be compensated for except perhaps high summer at dawn (which the swans, at least, would probably not be around for.) Still a nice little outing and not too terribly far to drive, and it was great day for it, very pleasant temperature and softer light from the haze. So we’ll be back, as well as checking out at least two other areas that are also relatively ‘local,’ sometime in the near future – before spring is out, most likely.
And now I have to catch up on the various pics I’ve been getting around here…