Mute Swan an Ellis Creek WRF

There were a handful of swans swimming through the freshwater ponds at Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility in Petaluma, CA. This particular swan was quite agitated that a Canada Goose was also swimming around its pond, and continually swam after the goose until it decided to leave.



Later on I understood its unhappiness with the other bird around, since when I walked around the backside of the pond that was overgrown with rush, I saw another swan sitting on what I guessed to be her nest.



Even though this is an introduced species in America, they are still quite fun to see, as they truly are a beautiful species.

Dilapidation

Its interesting to me how scenes of dilapidation can evoke such different responses. When I see urban dilapidation, it often comes with feelings of sorrow and sadness -- but when I find dilapidation in a rural scene, it can have a romantic side. Perhaps an inherent feeling of missing the 'simple days' of an era that has passed.



Here are two shots of a rural scene with a shed that appears to be on its last legs. Something about this scene has drawn me in every time I've seen it, but the many times I've been there in the full sun, it just didn't have the right feeling for me to get out the camera. On this overcast morning however, I finally felt the time was right to photograph it. Perhaps a sign that this was truly the appropriate time to make this image was that as I was standing there I had a wonderful flyby of a pair of mute swans. (Which, by the way, are nothing close to mute while they are flying. I heard them coming long before I saw them!). This image gives a neat contrast of this dilapidated scene with the bright elegant form of the swans in flight.