Mute Swans

My wife told me there were swans in the small lake near our house. I told her that she was mistaken, that they must be pelicans. Well, we drive by there last night and they are Mute Swans. When will I ever learn..... We go there this morning and I made these shots with the 100-400L and Canon 1.4x TC hand held at ISO 800, f.8 at 1/1000th. These have been cropped and PP in CS2, sharpened and noise reduced. I am playing with neat image, but it upsizes these above forum limit. My birding friend is all excited about these, apparently wild mute swans are extremely rare in Colorado.

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Two more shots.

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Nice work given it was handheld and with a converter! I like the first and third pictures best, the other two are a bit cluttered with all the vegetation in the foreground even though it does work as a kind of frame for the swans.

Mute Swans are very common here, we're a bit more exited when Whooper Swans show up.

Very good captures considering those were captured handheld.

Nice enviromental shots of the swans and geese. I can feel the serenity.

Nice habitat where the swans are, good to see the overall environmental area where the birds are. Good selection of birds there Mark, including the Canadian Geese, nice ones, well done.

Thanks, we had a terrific wind storm yesterday and our first freeze last night (2-3 weeks early), and I wondered if that would send the swans south, but they are still there today.

Nice shots, congrats on getting a rarity.

Always trust the wife! Nice shots - funny to think they are rare there when they are ten a penny here.

Thanks everyone, Damian, it is all location, location, location!! I was feeling the same when a UK member was all excited over prairie dogs. We trip over them here!