At precisely half-past eight on a cold, blue-sky April morning in Jyväskylä’s Kukumäki district, the quiet street is pierced by a keen, metallic rush of air—the wing-beats of Whooper Swans overhead. Having wintered on the milder shores of southern Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, these stalwart travellers now arrow northward, homing in on Finland’s awakening waters.
Only days earlier, on nearby Lake Myllyjärvi—its surface still latticed with late-season ice—I watched the first pair on the meltwater. Today, their airborne kin proclaim that the long northern winter is finally in retreat, and that spring, irrepressible and triumphant, has taken flight.
Making of:
At 8:30 AM, walking to work through Jyväskylä’s Kukumäki district, I stopped under a flawless blue sky as the high-pitched whoosh of Whooper Swans’ wings swept overhead. After spending the winter on the milder coasts of southern Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, they were finally back. Only a few days earlier I’d already watched a pair glide across nearby Lake Myllyjärvi—its surface still half-sheathed in ice during the first weeks of April—an early herald of spring’s arrival.
Technical Data: Sony RX10 Mark 4, Focal Length 534mm, ISO 400, Diafragma F5.6, Exposure Time: 1/1000s
Michael Emmerich 