When babysitting a young neighbour, Maralea Mushumanski often used to bring him to Lively's Fielding Park, where they'd feed the swans, ducks and geese that congregate there.
Little did she know this pastime would become such a consuming passion. Mushumanski said she visits the park almost every day, bringing bags of corn and bird seed for the birds to eat.
Somewhere along the way, she began bringing her camera along, and documenting the park's waterfowl. The result is her self-published photo book, “The Courting Swans and Other Birds.”
“I want to share what I have seen with the life stories of these creatures,” Mushumanski said.
“Most people come to the park and they stop for 10 minutes, and then they go. They don't see what's taking place. Creatures do all kinds of things that we don't know they do.”
The author received advice from local ornithologist Chris Blomme, a NorthernLife.ca columnist, who even has some of his photos featured in the book.
Fielding Park's swan population originates from birds brought to the city by Inco Ltd., Mushumanski said.
“They couldn't keep them on their land, as it wasn't suitable,” she said. “They brought them over to Fielding. It just took off from there.”
While the swans fly to remote water bodies to raise their young during the warmer months, they return to Fielding Park in the winter.
That's because humans feed them and there's a small section of open water caused by the rapids in Junction Creek. Ten swans spent the winter in Fielding Park this past year, Mushumanski said.
A swan with a damaged wing (which left him unable to fly away) even developed something akin to a friendship with her.
“As the years passed by, the swan would come when I called him and sit with me, and spend lots of time with me,” Mushumanski said.
She advises those who want to feed the flock in Fielding Park to bring corn and bird seed, not bread, which is bad for them.
Mushumanski's book, which costs $60, is available for sale at Battistelli's Your Independent Grocer in Lively, at the courtesy desk.
