The Sanctuary -ein Spaziergang mit Freunden

Liebe Angela, Lieber Peter,
Yes, if it weren't for Covid19 we would probably have walked together, an den Freitag, around the source/Quelle of Bass lake, its outlet, the North River which actuall flows North some distance before finally turning West into Matchedash Bay and Georgian Bay. So. since you cannot be here personally - social distancing in the extreme!
Please join us as we share what we saw sequentially/chronologically - it was a very good day.



The sanctuary is called the Langman Sanctuary

It is about 300 - 400m across the North/bottom of map, and the total circumference will be approx 1.5km. We'll start at the bottom right and go counterclockwise around the marsh on trail #1.

We'll start with the Summer Triangle

And what a pair of Trumpeters sound like when they are in Spring Fever - as opposed to Cabin fever

Our route is dangerous, there be Dragons  - Chalk-fronted Corporal Dragonfly (Family Libellulidae)

And on a warm day what might be better than vanilla ice cream?
Showy Lady Slippers

also known as the moccasin flower  - a beautiful sad haunting story

And Wood Lilies

Now for the shutter bugs, composition is not everything - luck is  and it favours those who are outside looking for a shot. The butterfly is a Northern Crescent

I think I'll pause this walk on the East side near Line #14 with another "orange subject,
a Baltimore Oriole

There is a bench here where we can rest  - and I can go ahead and see if I can identify a few more birds and plants,

And drink lots of water!

WOB

Swan Lake

You might like the musical accompaniment taken from Tchaikovsky - Dance of the Little Swans

It began this afternoon:

WOB

Something to trumpet about

If the person who sent me her photo of a pair of Tundra swans would  write and give me permission  to publish the pair in flight (Mar 22, 2015), I would compare Tundra with Trumpeters.

Vicki and I were at Washago on Saturday. There were only 6 Trumpeters - but all were unbanded and adult - no cygnets, no yellow wing tags, not sure about the leg bands.

There appear to be "knobs" but no metallic features.

For being unbanded, the swans were certainly not shy. One came very close to me, so that I felt just a little put upon:

The 6 came and went without regard to my presence - except to see if I had food(?) for them.

So I do hope that I will be granted permission to use NF's photo so I can compare Tundras with Trumpeters in flight.

W O B

Trumpeters at Washago

We were back at Washago yesterday - what a contrast to Sat Jan 20 -   
 where there had been 100 Trumpeter swans, there were now maybe 10; we saw 8 and there were Trumpeters out of sight, 1 or 2.

We saw 3 fly in about 30 minutes before sunset (17:46) :

There was 1 Goldeneye:

And several Mallards:

I guess that the mild weather has allowed the birds to disperse more.

W O B

Saturday at the source of the Severn

It was a mild day and Vicki and I thought we'd leave the "cabin" fever behind and get some fresh air. We were expecting Trumpeter swans but not the 100 to 120 we counted - there were 2 other groups of each approximately 20 birds bringing the total to more than 150. And most were banded this year, even the young which might have made up nearly 50% of the birds we saw.

While we were watching the swans some motion on the snow caught our attention:

I then went up on the road bridge and took the next photos looking up river:

Then I crossed the road and looked down stream:

I'll leave the turkeys and sunset impressions for another time.

W O B