Five Swans High

A rather unexpected opportunity.  Trumpeter Swans in the first week of February at Valdez, Alaska!  It was a sudden fly by that lasted only seconds but I was able to get a number of photos.  It just happened that I was trying to get some photos of a large flock of Mallard ducks that were doing a stop over in the tide flats so I had the 70-200 with the 2X multiplier on the Sony a6500 (600mm equiv.)  I was walking slowly across the flats at low tide, toward the ducks, when these Trumpeter Swans burst up out of a stream bed.  They flew over me then turned and flew away.  I was able to get the camera up and locked on pretty quickly (hand held) and tracked them as they flew by and disappeared.  This is one of the more distant shots but I liked the mountain peaks in the background.  The swans look like they wintered in Alaska, probably mostly on tide flats as they were quite dirty looking and a bit ragged, not to mention kind of skinny.  I don't know how they find enough food to even survive! 

Sony a6500, FE 70-200 F2.8 GM with 2X TC @ 140mm, ISO-100, f/5.6, 1/4000, hand held.