Swan song
The annual fall gathering of thousands of majestic tundra swans on the Mississippi River near the Iowa border is a spectacular sight. For those of us who didn't have time to make that three-hour drive before the swans migrated away this year, there's another way to catch this stunning annual spectacle:
Alan Stankevitz, a photographer in southeastern Minnesota, created a video of the swans swimming, preening and flying near Pool 8 on the Mississippi River near Brownsville, Minn. View it here: https://vimeo.com/79751216 (he suggests downloading it to your computer under the HD option for the best view).
The video features close-ups of the swans and a time-lapse sequence, but most extraordinary of all are the aerial views. For these Stankevitz maneuvered a remote-controlled mini-coptor with attached camera for breathtaking looks at the swans and the river they feed on. For more about Stankevitz's photography, centered on southeastern Minnesota, visit his blog at iwishicouldfly.com.
VAL CUNNINGHAM
