Swans

Last night I was walking on the millennium trail and I heard the lonely honking of a single swan. He looks so tired my heart went out to him. Then I heard the honking a lot of swans, seemingly calling him in to rest. As I rounded the corner on the trail and I could see the river, which is open in this part, there was a small group of swans that had just been joined by this lonely flyer. I watched them for about five minutes. 

Another pair of swans came winging over, the group on the river called out to them they called back, landing on the river and joining the larger group.  The interesting thing is that a number of larger groups also flew overhead. The flying swans were honking amongst them selves, the swans on the river did not honk back, and the swans kept on flying. 

 The pictures did not show the swans well. To the camera lens they look like dirty pieces of winter ice. I tried a number of different settings to see which would show them beat.  I’m not sure but I think there may have been two different types of swans in this group. Some of this ones were quick gray and some seemed to have orange rather than black beaks.

When I woke up this morning before the alarm, I could hear the swans talking as they fly overhead even further north to their breeding areas.