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Trumpeter Swans on the Orchard Trail: April 2021

Originally native to Ontario, the Trumpeter swan’s extirpation from eastern Canada over 200 years ago was primarily due to hunting pressure and habitat loss.

Trumpeter Swans

Biologist Harry Lumsden began a provincial reintroduction program in the early 1980’s to re-establish the Trumpeter swan in its former habitat and range.

Trumpeter Swans

These swans are well monitored and almost every one has a yellow identification number:

Trumpeter Swan
Trumpeter Swan

I have led walks on the Orchard (and other) Trails at Rouge Park many times. It has an ideal variety of stream, pond, forest, cliff and field.

Some botany:

Hop-hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)
Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
Red Oak acorn top
Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta)
Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
PIleated Woodpecker drilling
Hickory nuts
Silver Maple (Acer sachharinum)
Apple Cedar Rust in Red Cedar
Basswood (Tilia americana)
Scots Pine cone (Pinus sylvestris)
Pussy Willow (Salix discolor)

NATURE POETRY

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake’s edge or pool
Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away? – William Butler Yeats

Miles Hearn

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