Running take off

Haven't seen any white swans around for ages, only black ones, but this one was on the lake today. It sailed along in a stately manner for ages, and then suddenly saw something in the distance and started to flap like mad, then "run" on the water until it got lift, and it took off down the lake and out of sight honking madly.

It's amazing that such a big heavy bird can take off from the water.

These birds are a protected introduced species, and live on Lake Ellesmere. They used to be there is quite large numbers but a storm (known in NZ as the Wahine storm, as a ship went down during it with the loss of over 50 people, in 1968) wiped out much of their habitat and now there are less than 100 birds in the wild. I was very happy to see them today.

For more images from Lake Ellesmere click here on Flickr