Aylmer Wildlife Area - March 2025
Tundra Swans are actually the most populous swans in Canada, though they’re the ones you’re least likely to see. They spend their breeding season in the high arctic and only swoop through twice a year for a lengthy migration.
The 80 acres of Aylmer Wildlife Area has become famous as a staging ground for tundra swans on their way back north. In February / March, huge flocks of them descend on the relatively small wetlands to the delight of anyone who knows about this hidden little gem.
Including me, who realized the timing was perfect to go catch them as I’m working on this big expansive video about the swans of Ontario - formerly focused pretty exclusively on trumpeters but when you have opportunities like this, it’s impossible not to take advantage.
On a cold and sleety morning in March I hauled out to Aylmer and was very glad I did. After some very kind direction from locals doing the swan count I got to where I needed to be, on a viewing platform overlooking what turned out to be an official count of more than 600 swans. Some days they can top 2000.
As amazing as it was to see the swans covering the pond, the best moment was when a crowd in a field took wing and the sky was absolutely full of them. It wasn’t just by far the most swans I had ever seen in one place, seeing them flood overhead was astounding.
I spent a couple hours alternately strolling the perimeter of the fenced off area and making use of Aylmer’s interior viewing station - a rugged particle board construction showing both industriousness, scrappiness, and the clear love for the area and its residents. Info on the swans and other wildlife was tacked up on walls, simple and unflashy but informative and passionate.
The interior viewing station also had the smart addition of one way mirror windows allowing for close up views without disturbing the birds. They’re fed corn in the morning which has them swarming the building. I arrived too late for that, but the bird feeders right outside were still attracting an early spring menagerie of red-winged blackbirds, blue jays, sparrows and cardinals.
Now I have to go expand the section in the video about trumpeter swans to give me time to use all that gorgeous footage. Good problem to have.