Trumpeter swans at Martindale Flats

View On Black

These Trumpeter swans Cygnus buccinator are in the wetlands that form around Martindale Flats, on the Saanich Peninsula north of Victoria BC. Although we on southern Vancouver Island see these swans regularly over the winter, they are something of a miracle. In the 1930's there were only 77 Trumpeter swans breeding in Canada and only 50 in the US. An intensive international effort that included transplanting swans, breeding in captivity, and the protection of these swans in endangered species legislation, has resulted in returning these birds from the very brink of extinction. Although their range is considerably reduced, there are over 16,000 Trumpeters in the wilds of Canada and the US. They are no longer considered endangered.

Back at the turn of the 20th century we humans hunted these birds relentlessly. Unfortunately, we are still trouble-causers for this species. Habitat loss from expanding human population pressure is the biggest threat to Trumpeter swans. Hopefully we won't let the survival situation of these creatures deteriorate. Certainly, the world is a far better place with Trumpeter swans in it!

I took this picture on Jan 1, 2009. It was at the end of a day of birding. The sky was starting to get dark, so I had to use a higher ISO setting on the camera (the swans wouldn't sit still for a longer exposure!). A higher ISO gives a bit of a rough, grainy texture to the shot that I think works well with this image -- kind of gives it a "homespun" feel.

I used Adobe Lightroom to increase the contrast, remove a bit of the grainy "noise" introduced by the high ISO, remove a bluish colour cast, increase the exposure slightly, and saturate the non-blue colours a bit. Since I had Photoshop open, I popped the cropped image in and gave it a border.

1/60th second at f/8 with a 50 mm Canon 1.8 lens. ISO speed is 800. The metering type is "partial", with the metering centred on the swans.

This is not a "perfect" technical shot in any way. The lens is not the best one I could have used -- just the only one I had with me. I could have done a custom white balance in the field but I didn't because it would have taken longer than I had. No, the only thing that this image did well, as far as I am concerned, was capture a perfect moment at the end of a fine day.

More info on the Trumpeter: Hinterland Who's Who - Trumpeter Swan.