Spring Awakening at the Spit
Another see-saw day at the Spit: the wind is refreshingly cool, the sun warms your soul. The turtles agree.
Every time I looked there were more 👀
It’s the first day the place has truly felt ‘awake’ for the season. The first day you can stand at the edge of a pond and be overwhelmed by the noise of all the species around you.
I was drawn in mostly by the weather, more so than a particular mission in mind. I’m still in the market for a flock of hooded mergansers, though not as urgently anymore. And as I start to lock in the winter episodes, I’m eyeing the possibilities of summer, of which I have… too many.
The swallows are back! After the vanguard of tree swallows, the other two species at the spit, barn and cliff, have also started arriving. The barn swallows are mostly grouped at a structure near the entrance of Tommy Thompson Park, and they’re already re-occupying last year’s nests. The cliff swallows prefer the underhang of the Nature Centre but those nests are as-yet remnants of their former selves. I’ve been eager for a few years to capture the actual act of nest-building: swallows take up tiny mouthfuls of mud from riverbanks and deposit them one at a time to build them out. Maybe this is my year.
Otherwise - delighted at the gatherings of painted turtles soaking up the sun. At one of the ponds I stopped at, there was also a reliable group of tree swallows yelling their heads off and chasing each other around a group of headless birch trees. Competitive tree swallows is in fact something I need to capture for an upcoming episode but I don’t think I ever got the shot. Something to keep trying for.
Would you two quit being nice and fight already?!
Around the same pond, I got in a hissing match with a Canada Goose who I genuinely thought was going to rush me at one point (I’d have deserved it) and a trumpeter swan who may have been nesting against the backdrop of the skyline - or just having a nap. Hard to tell.
The CN Tower does not lend itself to landscape format.
On the way out I also saw a cormorant with a freshly-caught fish. Cormorants are one of the subjects for a summer episode, and I needed footage of them hunting successfully. So we did the classic dance: as he proudly paddled back and forth along the marina docks with his prize in his beak, I got closer, un-shouldered my tripod, found a relatively level patch of ground, set up, adjusted, swapped lenses, got him in frame, got him in focus… just in time for him to swallow the fish.
A lot of ‘didn’t quite catch it’ this trip, but knowing everyone is up and about means I’ll have plenty more opportunities.