On the morning of March 20th I decided to head out to the Feezout Lake Wildlife Management Area near Fairfield, Montana. It is about an hour drive from my home in Great Falls to the WMA. I had been monitoring the numbers of snow geese, as well as the swans, online and decided I would take my chances and go a week or two earlier than I normally would. Typically the best time for viewing is about the last week of March. That actually turned out to be the case again this year, but prior to that, the numbers had been well below average. The swan numbers the weekend I went were well above average however. I have heard speculation that the warmer than average spring was the cause of the unusual patterns this year. You can monitor the migration by going to FWP’s Story map for the Freezout Lake WMA. Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (arcgis.com)
The morning I went there were reported to be about 4,000 swans and only about 15,000 snow geese. The swan numbers were more than double the average, but the snow geese numbers were only about half the average for that time of year. Typically the snow geese fly off the water right before sunrise, but the day I went I helplessly watched as the biggest flock I saw took off as I was pulling off the highway. I heard that they were leaving earlier in the mornings this spring than usual. Since I had missed the snow geese, I decided to concentrate on the swans.
I found a pond that had a large number of swans on it and I walked down the levy to try and get in front of them. And by “get in front of them” I am referring to in front of them in the direction I predicted they would take off. Swans (like all birds) will take off into the wind, so you have a pretty good idea where they will go. The levy I was on did not run perfectly perpendicular to their take off direction, but it was close enough I could get some quartering head on shots which was much more desirable than getting a rear shot of a bird taking off which would have been the case from the road nearest the pond.
I spent about equal time taking still photographs and video. I knew I wanted to get some slow motion shots of them taking off, as they kind of run on water to get up to speed for take off and I just find that really interesting. So I was shooting in 4k and 60 frames per second on my R5. With the white birds on a cloudy featureless sky, I was having some trouble maintaining focus with the low contrast scene, but I still managed to get some ok stills and video. The wind was rather high however, so I did not get much for audio.
A pair of Tundra Swans taking off.
Tundra Swans flying in formation.
A pair of Tundra Swans flying towrds the camera.