January Deep Freeze

Feeding the Swans, January 3, 2009, Lasalle Park, Burlington ON
Mute swans (orange bills) and Trumpeter Swans (black bills)

Since our late December thaw, the weather has turned cold and open water is once again turning to ice. I took the above picture in the first week of January when Burlington Bay was completely ice free. Many ducks over winter on the shores of Lake Ontario and in the past week they have been grouping together in shrinking open areas as the ice surface grows.

Female Mallard on ice

Some ducks seem content to sit on the ice surface, especially at this park where they know humans will provide handouts for dinner. This is where a group of Trumpeter Swans spend the winter after they breed in northern Ontario. I have written before (here and here) about the committed volunteers who come daily to count and feed the tagged swans.

Young Trumpeter Swan caught in the ice

I visited during feeding time on a cold, snowy afternoon last week. A first year swan was stuck in ice on the bay and was unable to walk on the soft surface, nor was it able to fly upwards out of it. We watched it struggle to break through the mushy ice one stroke at a time. If the bird had turned to the right, open water would have been reached sooner, but it continued on its straight path even though it was obviously fatigued.


This picture was taken with a lot of zoom making it look like the swan was closer to shore than it really was. A heavy snow squall had moved in from the lake and I did not stay to see if the bird made it out of the ice. The volunteers saved a special portion of corn for the young swan and waited for it to get to shore. There wasn't anything people could do to help the situation.

The birds at the park recognized their caregivers and responded with loud trumpeting when their car drove into the driveway. They watched while the corn was removed from the vehicle and placed in bins on a sled. The 25 second video shows the noisy Trumpeter Swans (black bills) as well as other ducks getting their daily portion of grain.

Burlington Bay- January 9, 2009

Our temperatures will be dropping to -25C this week and there will be no more open water in this area. The survival of these birds over the next few weeks will depend on the supplemental feeding provided by these people who are working hard to re-establish Trumpeter Swans in Ontario.

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