9 December 2015. Cootes Paradise Hamiton ON. I cannot let today go by without some comment on the weather. Today the morning was positively October-ish yet it’s mid December. Cold has hardly touched us, barely a frost to speak of. It seems strange to be out in the field, everywhere swept clean of birds, yet warm enough that I wonder what an abundance of food remains available.
My afternoon hike along the shoreline of a shallow lake and out to a wooded promontory was marked more by micro-dramas than birds themselves. At the start, a crew of men were cutting to the ground some old, densely overgrown, evergreen hedges. I had worried that the hedges might hold some overwintering owls but my concern was ignored and down they came. However the hedges were home to many mice and as the chainsaws howled, so the mice ran for their lives; or so they thought. A Red-tailed Hawk had learned that the presence of these noisy men meant food and it stationed itself at the top of a nearby ash tree from where it periodically swept down to grab a meal.
Later, from the wooded promontory I could hear Tundra Swans. I could just make out a distant group on the other side of the lake so made my way down to the shore for a better look. I’m a sucker for Tundra Swans and these were my birds of the day. Out there among countless Mallards, Northern Shovelers and Green-winged Teal I counted eighty-three of them including what appeared to be several bonded pairs. One pair was engaged in a face-to-face display wherein, while cooing loudly to each other, both extended their neck horizontally barely above water level and set their wings quivering. I wondered if it was something Tchaikovsky might have written in to Swan Lake; maybe he did and I’ve missed it.
On the homeward stretch a Carolina Wren entertained me by singing loudly from a leafless willow. While I thought I’d managed to get a couple of decent long-shot photos what I couldn’t see from where I stood was the small twig that spoiled the whole thing.
Perhaps best of the day, although not a bird, was an Eastern Garter Snake found making its way across one of the shoreline trails. It was quite active and at my approach it drew up into a rather defensive semi-coiled position and tried a couple of lunges at me when it thought I was getting too close. This was an extraordinarily warm December day and presumably the snake had roused from hibernation. I wonder whether such a disruption is risky; perhaps once aroused it was driven to fuel up. I didn’t see anything that would seem make good snake food, but then I don’t get around at that level.
