Swans, Eagles, and Mews construction update

This week the migrating Tundra swans started to reach Southern Ontario in larger numbers. On Wednesday we took a drive to our regular viewing area, on Greenway Road (Info and Map link). While not yet at their peak, at least several hundred swans were in the area, resting up on their journey to the southwest.

 

 

This year one of the photographers was from CTV London:

 

He interviewed several people, including us. Imagine how surprised we were when people started telling us they saw us on the CTV London evening news! An associated article also included a couple of our pictures that we emailed him, at his request. I guess that's our 15 minutes of fame.  :))

We also managed to get a few more pictures of the nearby nesting Bald Eagles. They are taking turns incubating the eggs right now, so a lot of the time it looks like the nest is empty, as the incubating adult is quite low in the nest. 

At shift change though, there's more action:

 

Once the eggs hatch, my understanding is that the female takes on all the nest duties, while the male goes hunting and brings prey back to the nest for the female and nestlings. There is more frequent visible activity then, and the female is also more visible on the nest once she has to make room for growing eaglets.

Mews construction progressed this week. Only 3 days of activity, but roof trusses go up quickly, and change the look of the new building:

While on a walk on the nearby sideroad, we saw this unusual vehicle trundling back and forth with loads of rocks:

Clearly empty in this direction, the rocks are likely being used to help build up the shoreline at the nearby campground waterfront.