It was a tough debate with myself. Do I blog about the Zook finally getting the hook (a triumphant time for all Illini fans) or do a rant on what a piece of crap software iTunes is (you would think an half brained programmer would allow you to sort your playlist folders by the physical file name). At last I decided to go with … oh geez, I better get going on those Yellowstone posts or I’m going to spending the rest of the month wading through all the email from my angry readers. I need to ease into this thanks to the fact there are probably 30 posts alone from our shots that week and like a big night of bar hopping, once it’s tapped … you’re in for a long stream (too graphic?.. thought so). This set is a little bitter sweet. The sweet part is I was able to put another check in the bird list with Trumpeter Swans. The bitter news is I wasn’t able to get the best shots due to a combination of the weather conditions and just not having the required reach – those suckers were out there and even though we ended up hiking out pretty far to improve the shots, I didn’t exactly execute. Enough chit chat, let’s get those pictures up!
Linda and I were able to meet up with David and Giselle while we were out there. They are friends from here that recently moved out to Billings, Montana (to join the militia ha!). On our first day out there we passed by Swan Lake and noticed what looked like rather large white birds enjoying the water. Now keep in mind that was a ways off! I pulled out the Beast and tried to pull them in, but it just didn’t have the desired reach. Somewhat adventurous we decided to hike out there to get a better shot. It looked like just prairie grass at first, but we soon found out it was kind of swampy – luckily the cold weather firmed it up enough for us to pick our way out there. Linda took this great shot of us shooting the Swans.
As you can tell from the shot, it wasn’t the best day for shooting – glad we bundled up before hiking out there. I should probably point out that if it wasn’t for the cold there is absolutely no way Linda would have been out there with us because this field must be a snake haven on warmer days! As it turns out, we checked back at this lake later in the week and had a little better lighting than our first day. Since those came out a little better, I’ll start with those – note, I wasn’t about to ask Linda to head back out there in snake land so the better lighting cost some distance.
Here they are pulled in a little bit more thanks to a tighter cropping. For a bird that is somewhat rare, there sure was a nice grouping of them in the appropriately named lake.
Hit the jump to see more pictures of the Trumpeters!
