Tundra Swans at Brownsville

This past Friday I received a phone call from a friend of mine reporting that he was watching a couple thousand Swans at the Brownsville, Minnesota viewing area. That was a very welcome tip as I had been watching the Weaver Bottoms area for a couple of weeks waiting for the large influx of Swans. There were a bunch of Swans at Weaver but nowhere near the numbers I photographed last year in early November.

 

A couple of hours later my wife and I were headed for Brownsville to see what was happening. When we arrived we were greeted by a sea of several thousand white Tundra Swans that stretched across the wetlands in every direction. As we exited the car, we heard a chorus of the distinctive melancholy hooting of the mass of Swans that was interrupted occasionally with the quacking of a duck. It was exciting to see, hear and experience such a wonder of nature. 

 

It was rather daunting and a little humbling to be in the presence of such a display of nature. The challenge as a photographer coming across such a site was how to photograph and document the scene. About an hour and a half later we left Brownsville to return to Winona. If we had the time it would have been very easy to stick around for another couple of hours and shoot a couple thousand more images. Of course on the return trip the reality of having to go through, edit, and keyword that many images made the decision to leave more prudent. Please enjoy the images.

 

Please remember to click on the images to enlarge them and see them in better detail.

 

This was a portion of the Tundra Swans we observed on our arrival.

Adult and Juvenile Tundra Swans sharing the wetlands with some ducks.

A pair of Pintail Ducks sharing the wetlands.

Another photographer enjoying the sight.

A large flock of Swans at Brownsville, MN.

There was a lot of preening and bathing going on.

The waterfowl were abundant.

This pair of Goldeneye Ducks were not very nervous about all of the activity.

Stretching out.

Tandem landing.

Serenity in the midst of turmoil.