For the past few weeks I've been driving past this pond with a pair of swans and seeing one of them sitting on eggs. Every time I've driven by, I've prayed that they would have cygnets for me to photograph. Today, I had time to go check the pond and sure enough, the pair of swans were swimming around with the cygnets. Most of the time the cygnets were snuggled in on moms back, but they did periodically get off and stay very close.

When I first arrived, they were far out in the pond, but I took shots anyway because I didn't know if I would have any luck on them coming in closer. While I waited for them to come in close, a muskrat popped up out of the water near me. It was tough to photograph the muskrat because of all the tall grasses, but hopefully I got a couple of headshots of him.

When the muskrat finally disappeared, I realized the swans were heading my way and getting closer! The light was really tough to work with, but I did my best and enjoyed watching as they approached me and went by to head over to the other side of the pond. As they first began to approach, one of the cygnets was swimming along side the adults, then I watched it climb up onto mom with his siblings. By the time they got in nice and close, all four cygnets were on moms back.

After they went by, I worked my way around to the other side and to my surprise there were two pairs of Canada Geese with their goslings. Their were five goslings in total. Three of them belonged to the one pair and the other two belonged to the other pair. I had so much fun watching the three families, but at this point they were too close so I tried backing up as much as possible. I crossed the road and stood at the very edge of the lawn. I wasn't there for long when this nasty man came around the corner with his dog and was extremely rude about me standing on his property. Seriously? What the heck is wrong with people? Why can't people be friendly or nice. l was shocked he could even see me standing there through the thick tree line and space between his house and the side road. Oh well, I moved the one step off and back onto the road. 

I stayed for a bit longer and watched the three families. At this point I was just watching and enjoying the wildlife, not really getting any pics because everything was too close. Also, I already had in mind the photo I wanted to use for my blog today, a shot of mom giving her cygnets a ride. It was my first time (in person) seeing cygnets on mom's back and it made my day!