![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/tundra-swan-5192-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"tundra-swan-5192-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThe abrupt transition from running on ice to running on water must have been a challenge for such a huge bird.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/8, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Early yesterday morning at Bear River MBR I could tell by their behavior that a small group of Tundra Swans was about to take off to the south. I got the lead swan in my viewfinder just before ‘he’ began running across the ice in an effort to get his massive 14 lb. body airborne.<\/p>\n I was quite close to him so even without my teleconverter attached I was lucky to avoid clipping any body parts. When I saw my images at home I was even more surprised to learn that I have lots of shots of him taking off that turned out unusually well given the situation.<\/p>\n In this photo, one of my favorites of the series, he’d just run out of ice so he was running on water. I love running poses like this one, especially when the bird is really striding out with its legs and we can see at least some of the water splashes made by the running feet.<\/p>\n The transition from hard, slippery ice to water must have been a bit of a challenge for him because of the difference in their physical properties requiring somewhat different technique to get the best traction possible.<\/p>\n But he seemed to take it all… in stride, literally.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The abrupt transition from running on ice to running on water must have been a challenge for such a huge bird.<\/p>\n