Trumpeter Swans

Okay, this is something you don't see around the middle of Toronto every day: two trumpeter swans flying by. Which raises the question of how exactly we define 'Toronto.' For our purposes here, Toronto stretches from about Oakville in the west to Whitby/Oshawa on the east and maybe about as far north as Richmond Hill. In other words, anything that looks like it's part of the same city if you were looking from space. And I have looked from space, so I know.

In any case, I saw this couple around Whitby, and it's pretty remarkable to see these birds fly because they're very large. You can hear the hum of their wings flapping from a considerable distance.These birds were once essentially extinct in Ontario and have been re-introduced recently to what seems like great succes. If you see them, they're almost always have large yellow tags on their wings which shows they're part of the tracking program used to monitor the species' re-introduction. One of these swans was in fact tagged, you just can't see it in this shot.

Let me also add, after saying that the sound of a killdeer is nothing like the sound 'killdeer,' trumpeter swans are very aptly named. They can make a lot of noise, and because they're very territorial they're especially loud if other birds come too close to them . Canada geese send them right over the edge, so please never invite both of these species over for dinner. You'll regret it.