Surprise at Lake Ontario

The weather has broken, at least for a while, and I took the opportunity to start my walking again.  Now that I'm not "glowing" with every step I take, I feel like doing things again.

The first place I headed to was the lake.  I wanted to walk out on the pier and see what was happening.  When I got out of the car, I was assaulted by the most horrific stench that I have ever smelled there.  It didn't take me long to figure out why.  All you had to do was to look at the water.

The water was so green with algae that it appeared almost black.  All of those hot days had, apparently, raised the temperature of the water to a point where algae really flourished.  Blech!


But, I kept on.  As I got out onto the pier itself, the water cleared.  It was a windy day, and the waves were really kicking up.

As I looked back towards the shore, I could see how they were pounding the breakwater that has been built all along this area of the lake.

I looked out towards the lake.  The last time I was here, I couldn't figure out what the object was that I was seeing, way out in the lake.  I thought it might be a ship.  Today, it was there again.  So, no ship, but, rather, some kind of dredging operation.  It seems marginally closer this time, so I wonder if they're clearing out the shipping lanes? 

After watching the waves for a while, I headed back to my car.  I decided, before I left, however, that I would take a look at Mill Creek, and see what was there.  As I was walking towards the creek, which was full of Mallards sheltering from the waves, I saw a big, black bird in their midst.  You can barely see it in this picture.

I walked closer, and saw, very much to my surprise, a Black Swan.  Black Swans are native to Australia, and are quite common there.  They are a very rare, introduced species here, however, very rarely seen in the wild.  I am thinking that this one must be an escapee from somewhere.

When I got home, I sent an email to the same gentleman that I had notified about the banded Mute Swan that I had seen.  I included this picture  I didn't know if it was important that someone with the DEC know or not.  I'm very impressed by this gentleman.  He has answered me already.  He told me that he has sent the picture to someone else, presumably someone who is more involved with swans.  He told me that this gentleman would almost surely have something to say about this bird, and thanked me very much for sending the information.  I'll let you know what he has to say.

In the meantime, here's a short video of the swan.

 

 I forgot to put this second video in, and now, I can't get it to go in the right place.  I wanted to show how a large lake like Ontario is different from some of the smaller lakes that you might be familiar with.  Sometimes, I think that it's much closer to an ocean, than a lake.  Too bad you can see how dirty the water is.