I headed out to Cooley Lake today to see if I could find the swans my friend Phil Jeffries photographed the other day...sure enough, I did, but couldn't get really close. It was cold and very windy, so I sat in my car to sketch these huge birds...
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| This is the view from my Jeep "studio." If you look close you can see the swans out there in the mudflats. |
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| I couldn't see that well, even with my little binoculars, but this was my start, with my old rehabbed Winsor & Newton sketch kit. |
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| A bit further along, working in cramped--but warmer!--conditions. |
I managed to get some decent shots with my new Canon, which is what I used to work from on the right hand page of this spread. Even with the binoculars I really couldn't see much. The camera did a much better job!
I'm glad Phil got such a great photo of the immature swan...if it had been younger, the beak would have retained some pink color, so it much have been almost fully grown.
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| Thank you, Phil Jeffries, for sharing this wonderful photo...Phil's photographs are often in Missouri Department of Conservation publications. |
Trumpeters are returning to their historic territories, from the brink of extinction...they were very rare only a few years ago.