Proud to Be a Swan

He knows he's gorgeous!

I took this picture over the summer while I was visiting some friends on Lake Ontario. They told me about this family of swans that were nesting by their house on the shore, and took me out in their canoe to see if I could get a picture. Well, the swans wouldn't let us very close, and it was cloudy, so all the pictures turned out terrible. But later on, I went out wading along the shore to get some pictures of water lillies and dragonflies, and the swans all came gliding back into shore! I was able to get some really clear shots of the babies (one of them was preening himself and had lifted his foot up in the air, then forgot to put it back and spent the next ten minutes swimming around with his foot on his back). And I almost caught the daddy spreading his wings, but couldn't get the camera up in time! But the best part was a little later, when I was leaving, and I heard this loud THWOCK THWOCK THWOCK THWOCK noise from behind me. I turned around to see the swan running along the surface of the water, flapping madly in an attempt to get up, until he finally gave it up and swam back with his feathers all ruffled up. So here he is, looking very regal and floofy…but he's just trying to compensate for how silly he looked a few minutes earlier.