11 October 2024 - Hollingworth Lake

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20 Whooper Swans + 1

As I walked around this morning with Nala the Cockapoo, I was just approaching the hide when I heard bugling from my left, and looked up to see a party of Whooper Swans flying over, coming from the direction of Turnough and heading over the hide.  My camera was in my backpack, but I was among the trees anyway, so it was quite difficult to even count them.  Eventually I managed to get a count of 20 as they disappeared beyond the tree line.  They were quite low, so I carried on, hoping they may have settled on the water, but by the time I reached a clear area, it was obvious that they had just gone straight through.

I was then walking along the straight section of path that looks over Bib Knowl Valley when I spotted a Swan flying quite low over the water from my right.  It carried on and flew over the path and revealed itself to be another Whooper.  It carried on and seemed to be heading towards Clegg Hall, but a couple of minutes later it circled back round and landed distantly on the water.  I got my camera out of the bag but just as I latched on to it, it took flight and flew even further away.  Here's a flight shot as it took off, and a somewhat grainy and zoomed-in image of it distantly on the misty water.

It was still there in the early afternoon according to Andrew, but had gone by dusk when I went back for another peek as I took Nala for her evening walk.

Whooper Swan, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 250 (view full size image)

Whooper Swan , 1/640 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 320 (view full size image)