I photographed this swan when he was upside down in the lake, looking for food.
It seemed he would never come up for air again, and stayed like this for a very long time (or he was camera-shy, that is also a possibility)
Finally, he came up and looked around like nothing had happened.
Some of his friends were by the side of the lake, looking for something to eat in the frozen grass.
Others were swimming together with the smaller black birds (I have no idea what their English name is, sorry).
Yeah, those cute little black birds with the white bills are coots. We have them here in Utah, too. Fun that you got to see them with swans!
ReplyDeleteAh, thank you both! In Dutch they are called 'Meerkoet', (lakecoot), so funny how similar the names are in Dutch and English. I like their whites faces and the young birds are little black balls with a red beak. Really cute.
ReplyDeleteKind regards,
Well, Dutch and English both are Germanic languages, so it might not be surprising that there are some similarities (despite all the differences that came onto the scene when William the Conqueror came to England and the language was influenced by French - not to mention the influences from various other sides once the language 'moved' over the big pond!). The name Blässhuhn (Huhn is chicken) has to do with the white spot on the bird's face. 'Blass' means pale, and those white spots on animals' faces (like birds, horses etc.) are called 'Blesse'. So, orthographically, the term 'Blässhuhn' is a bit of a weird thing. But whatever, it boils down to the white spot :-) The young ones are cute, I agree!
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