Looking graceful once on the water

The tide was coming in fast when I went down early this afternoon. As the birds tend to mainly feed at the start and end of the day, there were few to be seen. Or maybe it was the cold wind. Those that were there didn't seem fazed  by either the force or the chill the wind provided.

There were two black swans waddling gracelessly across the mudflats towards the incoming tide when I arrived at the Southend. They increased the speed of their progress towards the water, and once on the water, the pur grace of these big birds was obvious.

Scofield and Stephenson in their photographic guide to New Zealand birds comment that despite evidence that the black swan had arrived before the European settlers came, no pre colonial settlement name is known. The name Wana is based on swan.