On Lake Traverse, near Achray, in Algonquin Park, Ontario
21-25 September 2023 

Reporting two Ontario Trumpeter Swans including Y26.

"The two swans were always together, behaving like a pair. They spent the days swimming along the shorelines, presumably feeding. The shorelines are sandy and shallow a long way out, with several marshy areas, and lots of lake mussells in the shallows. Each day they were in a slightly different area of the southern end of the lake, i.e. they moved around the lake (photo of swan footprints in the sandy bottom).

The birds only flew when a kayaker approached quickly and too closely. One of them honked quite a bit before they flew off.

That said, they were not shy. We were on the beach one day with three curious retrievers when the pair were just offshore, and both birds approached within about 20m of the shore to check us out. They honked quietly, but stayed nearby for twenty minutes or do before gradually swimming away.

There were very few people on the lake - two boats trolling, a couple of kayakers, and a couple of parties of canoes, including us. No cottages.

I have never seen any swans on this lake before, but am only here once in a while."