Mysterious Black Swan

My boyfriend's daughter mentioned to us that a black swan had been spotted not too far from us. Holy crap, they are totally Not anywhere near here originally. We managed to figure out the general vicinity where it had been seen. We certainly did Not expect to find it so easily. It was a dismal day too, grey and rainy when we headed out. I had wanted to get out for a bit so we decided to try the area where it was sighted. We get down there, park, and we see all kinds of activity out on the ice. Ice fishing most likely. I look out and see hundreds of geese and some ducks. There were some guys across on the other side of the water, doing some sort of training exercise. I look through my lens and there the thing is, swimming right near the shore and right near where one guy was standing.

Not all the water was frozen though and the guys we passed on the road down to the shoreline, where I figured we weren't allowed to go anyway, said to watch the edge of the water as it was soft in spots. We apparently were fine to be walking down there to the water edge. It was actually a pretty nice looking sandy beach out into the water even, albeit snow and ice covered much of the ground now. The black swan was swimming not too far out, among a couple mute swans.

There were also lots of different ducks. I like the cool little what was once called Old Squaw and is now called Long Tailed Duck - cute little ducks.

That black swan must have belonged to someone somewhere, but who knows where it came from or how it got there. I hope it will survive the cold winter.

We, out of curiousity, looked on Whatbird.com and an Ornithology site and there is no acknowledgement of this species of swan. Wikipedia has information but no bird species documentary sites seem to. This makes us think maybe this is only a domestic, ornamental bird? Kind of puzzling.

Awwww the Wittle Wigeons

Today, we got up at about 7am, hoping for the type of sunrise I saw Friday morning on the lake while riding the Go. No such luck but it was neat to see Whitby Pier again as we've kind of been traipsing around other areas and not so much there since summer of 2011. We didn't have too long as I was meeting my son to help get him settled into residence for school later so we basically walked to the end of the pier then back. Saw a few Mergansers but it was fairly quiet down there.

Had a nice time helping my son get into his room at residence, had a lunch at the school which was provided by the school for the new residents and their helpers. Fun day, I really enjoyed it. The school is in the area I grew up in and went to high school in and it was fun showing my son what was around there, the apartment building I lived in, my old school, Fairview Mall, etc.

We decided, when we got back, to do a walk somewhere because the sun was out as we left and since that's been rare lately, doing grocery shopping took a back seat lol!

Of course, doesn't cloud cover hit as soon as we head out, this time to the walk along the bluffs from Thickson Rd. We heard there was an array of cool duck spottings, and we haven't done that walk since May or June. I like walking along the shore in winter because there is always some sort of really neat light through ice find along the way. The sun peeked out here and there so there was some gorgeous sparkly images to be seen. A silver strip of white sunlight sparkle hit the horizon of the water briefly, which was beautiful to see from atop the bluffs.

We ran into a birding couple who were there to see the Pintail Duck, which they never did spot. They also had hoped to see a Pipit, which they as well as us were lucky to get to see in a tree on the path back, then see it fly away into a further tree. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough to grab a shot of it.


My fav ducks were there, the Gadwalls, and among them floated a couple American Wigeons as well as a Eurasian Wigeon which as far as we know from researching, is pretty far off its migratory path. They were hanging with the Gadwalls which they seem to resemble. There were also Canvas Backs and Buffleheads. Very difficult to get shots of them as they tend to be quite chicken compared to the Mallards. 4 swans floated around with the ducks as well - 3 Mutes and one tagged Trumpeter.

The odds of running into something gross and creepy are generally better than the odds of winning the lotto. We've run into bones of all kinds, animal skulls with bullet holes in them, huge rotting fish, dead duck carcasses, animal skeletons hanging from tree branches, and all kinds of things. Today, we discovered parts of what was probably some sort of large bird of prey, perhaps a Barred Owl, we weren't sure, strewn here and there, along with blood stains and pieces of insides scattered. Something obviously caught and killed something else fairly recently.

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New Years Day Walk

Got out for a bit before heading into Toronto for a family evening. First walk of the year and we spotted something new, and some creepy and cool things.

Again, there was like 50,000 Canada Geese at the shore of Lake Ontario in Whitby, and this time we were a little more alert to spotting the "different" goose that had to be there. Bingo - don't we see some grey goose that had a strip of white in front of its bill this time. No Snow Geese though. This one we learned after viewing it at home and checking, is a Greater White Fronted Goose. Maps show it is off course but who knows how accurate those are or how much migrating birds vary off course. This goose shouldn't be found this far east according to maps we noticed.

We also noticed what was a mottled swan, maybe still in its juvi stage. Tons of ducks too, some Buffleheads, and what we think may be a mix of some other ducks, maybe Ring-Necks or Wigeons or something, we can't be sure. One in the group which landed had a copper coloured head.

Besides the bird life, there washed up on the shore was a very large crayfish which must have washed up in the tide and died on shore. The other enticing subject matter was all the ice formations where water has splashed up on the fallen dead trees along the shoreline.

The walk began with the spotting of a red tailed Hawk, on the ground, under a tree, which pretty much took off as we neared it, carrying its prey.

First Post of 2013

This was supposed to be the last post of the year but turned into the first of a new year - a quick little one about our last little outing which was Sunday December 30th 2012. It was a pretty much a full sun day too, one of the rare days where the sun has shown its face in the last 2 to 3 weeks in Southernish Central Ontario.

First, we headed to Thickson Woods around 10:30am. Not a huge lot to see though we did see a hawk fly by overhead quite low, and a Ruby Crowned Vireo hopping around on some downed dead pine needles on the branches of a fallen small pine tree. There were the usual Red Breasted Nuthatches, woodpeckers, and one lone red squirrel. However, Before getting there we had gone to Walmart for cold meds for me and if we had not have, we'd have missed the cool sighting of the cutest American Kestrel on a wire beside the road as we headed back. So adorable! Perfect day too, with the sun on it and the wind ruffling its feathers.

We decided to head to Halls Rd. after Thickson. I love going down to the shore of Lake Ontario, which is a close walk from the path there. On our walk in, the barred owl was about again and we watched her for a bit, dozing, preening, yawning, basically a sun basking day for her. Good to see she seems to be doing well and is obviously finding food and likes the area.

Heading down to the shoreline ended up providing a pretty cool discovery. As soon as we cleared the path and looked out, there were 1000s of Canada Geese on shore and in the water. Many were so funny, standing on 1 foot with their faces tucked back into their back feathers, looking so cute. We watched them for a bit until another couple came down to the shore. They were talking about how there Has to be something different among this huge amount of geese. They began looking with binoculars and soon named some sort of gull and walked off further down the beach. We saw nothing that distance away where they seemed to be referring to. Then, a white head among the geese stood out. We walked down along the shoreline and through my lens I could see a thinner grey bird, the size of the geese almost, but with a white head and yellowy beak. We neared the couple, who had a little book on birds, and they blurted out that it was a Snow Goose. Ok, I thought they were more white but hey, what do I know.

Funny enough, when we got home and had a chance to view the pics of it I had gotten, there was a 2nd bird, all grey/brown but with similar markings at the wing edges, floating along with the Snow Goose. After a little research, we learned one was a Dark Morph Snow Goose and a juvenile Snow Goose. How cool as the last interesting sight on one of our 2012 walks!