"The Return of EA98"
I hadn't seen this mute swan and her mate all year. Over the past three years that I've been living on the water I've seen her at least once every year, so I was thrilled to see her again - on New Year's Eve, the last possible day of the year for her to keep the streak alive - despite it still being hunting season here. I'm not sure if swans are legal game, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're not occasionally "mistaken" for ducks or geese.
I think the two of them remember me because when I went out on my dock they swam right over. They might just have been hoping that I was going to feed them - which is illegal, incidentally; and not good for them, besides - but I like to believe that, on some level of consciousness, they know me, recognize and remember me. Even when the battery on my camera died, and I had to go back inside to get the spare - during which time they'd started swimming away - when I returned so did they.
As a post script, I haven't seen them since that single, brief appearance on Friday morning; but Sally and I do hope that they return again, sooner rather than later. It was Sally's first sighting of them, and I pray that it won't be her last.
Camera Data
CanonCanon EOS 5D
1/99 second
F/4.0
105 mm
50
Dec 31, 2010, 7:36:46 AM
Adobe Photoshop CS Windows
59mm
