Swan Dive

Swan Dive

Swan Dive – Look at the size of those flippers. I took these photos in Iowa a couple of years ago. I just had to bring them back up being I have been posting about swans.

We were walking along the edge of a small lake surrounded by tall vegetation and we could here this loud noise and the sound of water splashing. We walked over to a clearing and looked across the water and found the source of all this commotion.

Swan Dive

Seeing a swan taking a bath is quite something. They have a wing span of 6 to 10 feet long. The longest wingspan recorded is 10 feet 2 inches.

Swan Dive

The trumpeter swan is the largest extant species of waterfowl, and both the heaviest and longest native bird of North America. They come in at 15 to 30 lbs.

swan taking a bath

These swans need at least a 100 meter-long “runway” of open water: running hard across the surface, they almost sound like galloping horses as they generate speed for take off. About as long as a soccer field.

swan splashing in water

Hopefully I will photograph that one day, landing and taking off.

Swan Dive
Swan Dive

Swan Dive

Sandra J

Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts


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46 Replies to “Swan Dive”

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  2. I have always liked watching a songbird or my pet birds having a bath – they really enjoy themselves and this Trumpeter Swan was enjoying itself too. Those are big “flippers” on that swan!

  3. Our swans are gathering here (a few hundred yards from the house). The lakes will freeze in a few days so they will leave when last ice forms. We hear a whole flock galloping sometimes. It’s very loud. A beautiful bird…I know, I should get the camera down to the lake.

    1. I so would be down there. Just to see more than two and watch them take off would be wonderful. I really have only seen just two at a time and usually so far away it is hard to get a photo.

            1. Bird photography gets us that way, needing better camera gear, because they are just amazing to see up close. That many swans in one spot, so cool to see in your photos and eagles in the background, Love it 🙂

          1. It was magical. The freezing lake had put all the swans in a tiny place they kept open.
            A mist in the early morning air was freezing to everything including my fingers.

  4. Great photos! 🦢🦢🙏
    Thank you Sandra. Have a wonderful day !

    (And by the way, I’ve been unable to leave you likes for the last few days, it won’t load).😁

    1. Thank you Francine, and thanks for letting me know. Another reader told me about that last week. Seems like it is coming from WordPress. Other people said they are having the same issue. Then WordPress seemed to have fixed it. I will look into it. Thanks for letting me know, have a wonderful day. 😊

  5. Nach einem solchen Bad sind sie zweifellos frisch gewaschen. Wunderschöne Bilder, Sandra und hoffentlich siehst du sie auch, wenn sie abheben. Ich finde es auch wunderbar zu sehen, wie sie die ersten Meter auf dem Wasser gehen und sich schließlich für den freien Luftraum entscheiden.

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