{"id":859,"date":"2010-01-25T17:18:21","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T01:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/?p=859"},"modified":"2010-01-25T17:18:21","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T01:18:21","slug":"trumpeter-swans-up-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/trumpeter-swans-up-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Trumpeter Swans Up Close"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trumpeter<\/a>

Trumpeter Swans (with Mallard)<\/p><\/div>\n

It is always exciting when swans decide to winter in Oklahoma. Birders on the OKBirds listserv<\/a> keep everyone aware of swan sightings and the birds sometimes find Oklahoma ponds a welcome place to spend at least part of the winter months. Tundra Swans are the most rare of the swan species to visit the state and I haven’t yet had my first sighting. I’ve photographed Trumpeter Swans only twice: once at the Great Salt Plains and the other on a farm pond near Lawton.<\/p>\n

This winter, I am fortunate that a group of 8 Trumpeter Swans was spotted on a housing developing lake in Norman, Oklahoma during the Cleveland County Christmas Bird Count. A Christmas blizzard and other weather woes kept me from checking them out until last weekend. They’re only 30 miles away so I was happy that: 1) the small lake was free of ice and 2) the swans were still there.<\/p>\n

These birds were very cooperative and swam right up to the shoreline. It didn’t hurt that the wind was strong and cold and where I was standing was sheltered!\u00a0\u00a0 I had a great time watching and photographing the swans — one of which is an immature (first time I’ve seen a juvie).<\/p>\n

There is a Mute Swan on a local lake. It is not considered a wild bird although it flies quite well.\u00a0 This species of swan is what is commonly found at parks and small city ponds.\u00a0 I put two “head shots” in the photo below: an adult Trumpeter and an adult Mute Swan. They are distinguished by the head\/bill… their bodies are very similar when seen on the water.<\/p>\n

\"Trumpeter<\/a>

Trumpeter Swan (left), Mute Swan (right)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trumpeter Swans (with Mallard)<\/p>\n

It is always exciting when swans decide to winter in Oklahoma. Birders on the OKBirds listserv keep everyone aware of swan sightings and the birds sometimes find Oklahoma ponds a welcome place to spend at least part of the winter months. Tundra Swans are the most rare of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}