Sunday Six: January 11th

                                   Tundra Swans

The weather forecast had been for snow and ice this weekend, and I was hoping for some winter wonderland images. Nope, we got all of an eighth of an inch. My backup plan was to go to Whitesbog in the Pinelands National Reserve and photograph the overwintering tundra swans. The image above is the aforementioned swans leaving not long after I arrived. 

                                   Tundra Swan

The bird above was a straggler. As the name implies there are a number of cranberry bogs at Whitesbog. The bogs are flooded over the winter, I believe to protect the cranberry plants. The tundra swans find them an inviting place to spend the winter. I drove up on the far side of the bog they were feeding in so as not to spook them. I had my big lens, a Questar 700, so the distance was not an issue. As I was setting up a group of hikers came out of the pines on the other side of the bog. And off were the swans. I grabbed my camera, which had my 400 mm lens on it, and started shooting. I got a few keepers. But all of the swans, a hundred or so, had left.

                                   Ice Covered Cranberry Bog.

I wandered about to see if the swans had moved to another of the bogs, but did not relocate them. Most of the bogs were ice covered, and the birds need open water so they can feed on the submerged plants. They don't each the cranberries, but another plant the name of which escapes me. 

                                   Wind Blown Reeds

It was below freezing and the wind was gusting to about fifteen miles per hour. And the weather was changing rapidly. The morning forecast called for snow, clouds, and sun. And I experienced them all in the three hours I was there.

                                   Bog and Road

I've hiked around these bogs but today I was glad to have my car. I have a Ford Escape Hybrid, and small SUV with 4 wheel drive. The spent most of the drive in "golf cart mode", that is, running on battery power. The roads were in good shape and I don't think I went into 4 wheel drive at all (buts it's good to have on the sand roads in the pines).

                                   Blueberries

Thanks to the work done by Elizabeth White, blueberries were first successfully cultivated at Whitesbog. They also grow wild throughout the area.