11 Baby Swans!

Yesterday morn, Canada Day, we went for a walk to Whitby Harbour specifically to see if we could spot the baby swans we had seen there a day or so ago. There they were, way out a bit so we decided to attempt to get around the end of the fence, along the rocks at the shoreline. We did this, and got closer. Of Course don't they then come right in to the side of the pier walkway where we could have just stayed and not climbed along all the skanky rocks and shoreline to get to them just 20 mins before lol! However, got a cool shot of some bones on that trek.

We saw the mocking bird as well, and what we think was a fledgling one, as well as getting some up close shots of the sea gulls' eyes.

Confused Beaver

We have seen a lot of weird things down at Whitby Harbour in the past year of living near it and venturing down there. Sheep skulls with bullet holes in them, boats way out on the lake on fire, a kayaker having to be rescued, tons of swans, wild grapes growing, a resident mockingbird, all sorts of people fishing, lots of varied water birds, the snowy owl, a photo shoot in the old brick structure.....always Something interesting. It often can seem like the walk will be a boring one, then something freaky or neat shows up.

Tuesday of this week, not a lot seemed to be around. Then we spotted what looked like a brown shape swimming in the lake toward the shore. It was not a bird, we knew. We quickly ran back along the pier and jumped onto the sand and headed for the beach area where it looked like it would come up on shore. Then, this creature waddles out of the water. It looked like a groundhog. But....it was a beaver! It started walking towards me. I only had on my old manual 105mm portrait lens so I had ot keep refocusing to get some shots. The beaver seemed odd, acting strange, disoriented and we were not sure if beavers would be seen out in the open waters of Lake Ontario.  It turned and headed back to the water, and swam back out. Freaky.

Got some shots of the mockingbird too, which was surprisingly close that evening.

C15 Swan Again....Too Near the Road :-(

Although it is awesome to get to walk right up to him, this swan at Whitby Harbour is always right beside the road. This time, resting with his head in his feathers.

This morning, went down to the harbour to see what was around. We talked with a guy from Sunderland, who is an avid bird watcher. He let us know the big gull with the black wings we had seen earlier is a Greater Black Back Gull and that they aren't often seen more than maybe once a year in Whitby. I got a shot of one, though it was too far for my lens.

My camera got cold and wet and began not to function so we went home.