Tundra Swans

Royal Botanical Gardens. Cootes Paradise, Hamilton. ON. December 18 2022. Ending my walk, I turned to look back and was struck by the silvery-ness of this shallow, remnant lake at the west end of Lake Ontario. I was finishing a long, almost bird-less, walk and realized now that silver had dominated this December day.

Almost bird-less but for ducks and swans. A small flock of Tundra Swans sat far from shore, most of them with their heads turned and tucked underwing, just whiling away winter. I think they should have kept on going east to the Atlantic seaboard, as most Tundra Swans surely have to: Virginia, North Carolina, perhaps Chesapeake Bay.  Open water means access to food and however cold this winter may become; the ocean does not freeze.

There were about thirty of them in a strung-out cluster of bright white against the opposite shore. There were Northern Shovelers, Gadwall and Mallards too, here and there, busy about daily life until a Bald Eagle appeared from somewhere and they all took off in an explosive panic until the threat drifted away. The swans were quite unmoved, apparently eagle-panic is not in their makeup.

Steadying my camera, I took several long-shot photos of the swans, they don’t really tell you much, except that a couple of them are youngsters, hatched this year and still smudged with sooty grey.