Sunday 23 May 2010

Recent Photos of Scooter and family

Scooter is still paddling about the Huon River near Franklin. I've seen him a few times recently, and got a few photos. He's often on his own when I see him, but sometimes with up to five others of his family. I've only seen six swans together recently, and I'm not sure which six they are, as most of them are adult-sized, or almost adult-sized. See the next post however, there are new cygnets about.


Scooter floats about alone
Scooter balances on on eleg in the shallows to groom
here you can see Scooter's now impressive wing and damaged foot.
Scooter balances on one leg and has a snooze
nearby another swan snoozes, this might be an adult or one of Scooter's siblings
Scooter at sunrise
Scooter's foot is getting worse, and you can see here the holes developing in it. This was a couple of weeks ago, and it is worse now. Nevertheless, he continues to swim about.

2 comments:

mick said...

Beautiful photos of the swan - I especially like the details of the feathers. It must be great habitat for swans as this bird seems to be surviving quite well.

Mark said...

Thanks mick. Yes, I think the habitat is very good. We had a wet winter last year which means there's been a lot of growth, and many animal populations seem to be doing well. However, it's been dry lately, so more rain is now needed. In general, the river here seems to be very good for the birdlife, which paddles and flies about quite unmolested. Also fairly clean, as far as we know, although it's not clear that we actually have access to accurate testing data.