The first robin of spring checks out the inner bay -- what a welcome sight!
What an interesting few days we have had at the bay. Yesterday the cormorants returned. Monday they weren’t there, Tuesday they were. One day, they just magically show up — just like that. Back from wherever they spent their winters. Northern Mexico, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, it looks like, if I’m reading my Smithsonian handbook correctly.
The double-crested cormorants are great fun to watch, but they do engender a great deal of controversy. Lots of folks would like to see their numbers controlled — i.e. culled — because of the damage they do to the trees in their nesting grounds out on the Leslie St. Spit. It’s the guano, you know.
While the robins have been back for two to three weeks — see above, Mr. Robin checking out the view — the song sparrows have just returned in the past two or three days from their winter sojourn in the southern U.S. How happy we are to have them back, singing as they do so brilliantly from every treetop.
And I was completely wrong to have ever wondered about the gadwalls. There are many, many pairs of them around. Still as skittish and shy as ever. At least six pairs of scaups could be seen today in the part of the Coatsworth Cut closest to Lakeshore Blvd. Couldn’t get very close to them, either. When you try to move closer, they just take off farther into the lake. Oh well. They’re still lovely to behold from a distance.
And what of our two swan friends? I thought for a while today that Tycho had started his nest in a new spot. A spot that I have to say looks to be quite dangerous. A spot where a single offleash dog could mean a tragedy for our swans or their babies. I hope I was wrong and that Tycho goes back to his old spot for nest building, safely away from people and their pets.
I guess we’ll see soon enough.
Isn’t spring grand? The great wheel turns and the cycle starts again.
©BCP 2010
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