Winter Wildlife at Bluffer's Park - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

[VanessaS]

Trumpeter Swans were almost extinct in Ontario - until the Trumpeter Swan Society stepped in and implemented a wild breeding program. Now they ship the swans all over North America into areas where they are threatened.

Trumpeter Swan Takeoff...

48hours2 by Vanessa1969, on Flickr

Trumpeter Swan in foreground and Mute Swan in background...

48hours by Vanessa1969, on Flickr

Trumpeter Swan...

DSC06320 by Vanessa1969, on Flickr

Mute Swan with extensive beak damage. I contacted a friend at Toronto Wildlife Centre and they have not treated this swan. They seemed to be eating well and looked healthy...

DSC06427 by Vanessa1969, on Flickr

Bluffer's Park Synchronized Swim Team...

DSC07234 by Vanessa1969, on Flickr

Like water off a ducks back...

DSC07143 by Vanessa1969, on Flickr

Family of Trumpeter Swans - mum, dad and seven cygnets...

DSC07751 by Vanessa1969, on Flickr

[Donald]

A good set of images. I tried photographing birds on wildlife reserve once. All it achieved was to make me more admiring of you folks who do produce good bird images.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Vanessa,

Nice series.

My only suggestion would be a bit more exposure on the last one and perhaps bump up the mid-tones on the Mallard.

It's a shame they wing tag them like that
... perhaps it is just a first season thing for cygnets?

My Mute Swan album, if interested, although I cringe at the quality of the earlier examples now.

Cheers,

[Hans]

"A good set of images. I tried photographing birds on wildlife reserve once. All it achieved was to make me more admiring of you folks who do produce good bird images."

Um, yup... what he said!

Some nice well focussed images of difficult moving targets. Nicely done

[VanessaS]

They are tagged because they are monitored by the Trumpeter Swan Society still and will be captured and relocated to other parts of North America where they are endangered. I am not keen on it either, and makes for ugliness in photos, but they can keep track of them that way.
Thanks for the feedback, below is the lightened up family picture.

[Dave Humphries]

They are tagged because they are monitored by the Trumpeter Swan Society still and will be captured and relocated to other parts of North America where they are endangered. I am not keen on it either, and makes for ugliness in photos, but they can keep track of them that way.

Yeah, I just wondered why they couldn't use leg rings, as we do here on our Mute swans.

I guess the obvious answer is they can be read far more easily, legs rings being under water much of the time.