Winter morning at Lake Kussharo

• Where was the image taken?

  Japan
• The bird in the photo

  Cygnus cygnus (hu: Énekes hattyú en: Whooper Swan)
• Story of the image

  I had two mornings to photograph Whooper swans at Lake Kussharo in Hokkaido, Japan. The weather was generally grey, but early one morning there was a gentle glow in the sky and I was pleased to capture this colourful image with one of the swans. While the image and environment look beautiful and serene, there is one thing wrong with this picture...there is no ice! The lake did not freeze this year, which is extraordinary, and is perhaps a warning of what is to come as the climate changes.

  Exif adatok

  Photo capture date

  2025-02-11T22:45:50

  Exposure time

  1/250s

  Focal Length

  58mm

  Flash

  Flash did not fire

  Camera make

  NIKON CORPORATION

  Type of camera

  NIKON Z 8
• Category

  Madarak környezetben

• Fotós:

  Heidi Ann Beck

  I have always been interested in wildlife photography. As a child in the USA I covered my walls with photos from the centre of 'Ranger Rick' magazine and attempted to photograph the birds around me with my instamatic camera. I wasn't very successful! Then I grew up and moved the the UK and worked and raised children. It wasn't until 2017 that I was gifted a real camera which could support a telephoto lens. Since then I have been learning how to take photos of wildlife, both around my home, first in the UK and now in Portugal, and further afield, travelling to some amazing places to photograph wildlife. My first love is birds, their stunning variety and beauty, and I am happy to trek through forests, sit for hours waiting in a sauna-like hide, sleep in a bog, or to stand on a boat in the freezing cold, following my passion. I am constantly delighted by them, and with my photographs I attempt to share my delight and amazement, and how beautiful I think they are, the ancestors of the dinosaurs, all around us! I hope that by engaging people with beautiful photos they will start to take notice of the birds and habitat around them, and realise how lucky we are, before more species are lost.