The top two are great. I'm not entirely sure whether Japanese swans are the same as the ones we have in Europe, but I'd say that those in the pictures are Whooper swans. In England, and I think it's the same throughout Europe, there are three varieties of wild white swan: Mute; Whooper, and Bewick's. The Mute swans have an orange dash above the beak and the other two have yellow. Good shots.

Cheers Luke. I'll bow to your knowledge of swans. I don't know much about different varieties etc. We were thinking, though, that if they're wintering in Northern Kanto, they must have come from somewhere like Siberia. Why else would you choose to spend the winter in Ibaraki??