We recently returned from a cruise on the Canadian Empress from Ottawa to Kingston and Kingston to Quebec City. Before heading home, we also spent a few nights in Tadoussac for the specific purpose of seeing beluga whales. Just a few hundred kilometers away, we were surprised by the differences in wildlife we saw along the St. Lawrence.
First, while we were on the first leg of our journey along the Ottawa River, early one morning we were able to photograph this house sparrow at the Carillon lock. Although common in Ottawa and throughout North America, we have never seen one at the cottage. House sparrows were introduced to North America in the mid-1800s and in just 150 years have spread throughout the continent, except for the far north and our cottage. Seed and insect eaters, house sparrows nest in any sheltered cavity including bird houses, street lights, and crevices in buildings.
A bird we have never seen on Three Mile Bay is the mute swan. These two were swimming with a few others in the waters of the St. Lawrence National Park, east of Rockport, Ontario. Brought to North America in the late 1800s to decorate ponds in town and cities, this non-native swan is a voracious eater. Its over grazing of native eco-systems has led to some efforts to reduce their numbers. We suppose we should be relieved mute swans are not seen on White Lake where each year we are graced with the beauty of trumpeter swans.
Everyone knows a gull to see one, but many species of gull exist world-wide. The ring-billed gull is the one we usually see on Three Mile Bay at the cottage. On the St. Lawrence, the most common was the herring gull, which we have seen only twice here at White Lake. The herring gull looks similar to the ring-billed but is somewhat larger of body and weight and has a red spot on its bill (rather than a black ring). The herring gull occurs throughout North America, but is outnumbered by the ring-billed gull on inland lakes which explains why we see fewer herring gulls here at our lake.
As we pulled into the Port of Quebec City, we spotted this zebra jumping spider with a mouthful of dinner. We see a variety of species of jumping spider at the cottage, but not the zebra jumping spider. Unmistakable for its bold abdominal stripes, the zebra jumper hunts in the sunlight, locating prey using its large front eyes.
Another bird we have not seen at the cottage is the snow goose which we saw foraging in the vegetation on the beach in front of our hotel in Tadoussac. Snow geese eat aquatic and terrestrial vegetation. The snow goose breeds in the high Arctic. Masses of snow geese have been reported heading north or south and resting on route in farmers’ fields south east of Ottawa where they take the opportunity to graze on the grain and leaves in agricultural fields. Our photo shows the obvious black grin-patch which is a distinctive mark of the snow goose.
Last, but not least, we saw the beluga whales we had set out to see in Tadoussac! Beluga whales can be found in the north, including Hudson’s Bay, near Churchill, Manitoba, but luckily for us southerners, a resident pod lives the year round at the mouth of the Saguenay River where it empties into the St. Lawrence River. We saw many beluga whales, or we saw one many times, but unfortunately, they were a good distance from the ship and none of our photos were good enough to share with you. We will definitely return to Tadoussac to holiday, to see the belugas again. When we do, perhaps one will come close enough to the ship for us to take a good photo. This is the best photo of a beluga our intrepid photographer was able to get.
We enjoyed seeing all these different creatures but were happy to return to the cottage at White Lake for the rest of the season.
In writing this article, we referred to David Bird’s Birds of Eastern Canada and Sarah Rose’s Spiders of North America.
