I have abandoned my stalking of the red tail hawk living in my neighbourhood.

 

Meet the new object of my affections ...

 

Trumpeter Swan - R16

(I think I'll call him Leopold!)

 

 

We spotted him just offshore last Friday at Brueckner Rhododendron Gardens (Lakeshore Road West at Shawnmarr Road).  I was relatively sure he was a swan (I can tell the difference between a swan and a gull!)  And I was relatively sure he wasn't hatched with a plastic identification tag already attached to his wing. 

 

When I got home, I typed "swan tagging - R16" into Google and was directed to the Wye Marsh Trumpeter Swan Restoration Program.  Leopold is part of a trumpeter restoration program that was begun in the early 1980's.  The last trumpeter swan in Ontario was shot by a hunter in 1866!!  Until the restoration program began, the trumpeter swan was basically extinct in Ontario.  But thanks to the program, there are now about 800 swans in Ontario.

 

There was room on the Wye Marsh web site for me to report my sighting of Leopold.  I'm hoping for a acknowledgement e-mail with a name/job title, so I can e-mail back and try and get some background information on Leopold - where he was released, where he has been, etc.  I'm also going to try and get out to the Wye March and LaSalle Park in Burlington.  Both organizations are involved with the restoration program.  Maybe someone there can tell me more about Leopold!