Trumpeter Swans

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...

This is the view from my Jeep "studio."  If you look close you can see the swans out there in the mudflats.

I couldn't see that well, even with my little binoculars, but this was my start, with my old rehabbed Winsor & Newton sketch kit.

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.

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.

Birds on the Lake

©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Birds on the Lake (9-12-11). Pen in large handbook sketchbook.

I was lucky enough to see some water birds when we were taking our last boat ride on the lake for the year. There is a family of three swans (two adults and one juvenile) that I've been noticing swimming around the lake. After doing some reading, I think these are mute swans because they have a knob on their forehead. At the bottom of the page, I sketched some ducks, which look like little blurs because they were moving so fast.

I also spotted a heron on the water's edge (lower right). This particular heron likes to walk along our shoreline and fish from our dock. Before we took the boat out of the water, I spotted it climbing onto the boat to fish! Even though he moves very slowly, I was still only able to make stick figure like sketches of it (see below).


©2011 Carolyn A. Pappas, Heron on the Move (9-13-11). Pen in large handbook sketchbook.

6 swans a-sitting

..well, they weren't swimming, because the lake was frozen, but it was delightful seeing these big birds!  Trumpeter swans were thought extinct in the first part of the 20th century, but they're making a comeback--there are an estimated 1000 birds now...

We just see them in Missouri as they migrate through in fall, winter, and early spring--but I think it was the FIRST time I'd ever seen them here!  Their range is pretty big, from the tundra of Alaska to Missouri and a bit south...

Learn more about these big birds from the Trumpeter Swan Society, or from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology.




They're huge--25-30 pounds, wiith a 7 to 8-foot wingspan. Some of them have rusty or orangish heads--that's because the feathers get stained when they feed in iron-rich water or mud.

They ARE considered rare and endangered, and anyone who shoots one is in for a heavy fine for this federal offense. They are quite different from the only other large white waterfowl; snow geese weigh much less, and have a wingspan approximately three feet shorter. Their bills and feet are pinkish, white trumpeters have black bills and feet. Their necks are quite long in relation to their body...you'd have to be blind to confuse the two species, but some have said they've done just that.

I didn't get to hear them trumpeting--just grumbling because I was too close!  As you can see below, I really didn't get close enough to take a really good picture, though.

My "studio" is usually pretty simple--the front seat of the Jeep or our truck, Rosie.  It's a bit awkward, but it's OUT there...and warmer in the Jeep than it was outdoors, right around freezing...

It was wonderful just being OUT there...after all our snow and ice, being outdoors felt great. I needed it! And as if for a reward, the sun came out for an hour or so, just after I took the photo...lovely!

This was graphite, ink, and watercolor on Winsor & Newton hot press paper.