I am posting 2 blogs today since I seem to be able to access the internet from my PC at my current location (Water’s Edge RV park in Shoal Harbour, NL).
Many of the Gannets I saw at Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve had baby chicks.
There are other birds at Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve.
Thousands of Murres--
About one in 10 Murres has what I was calling sunglasses on them. I think the ranger called them banded.
I had been told to ask when a tour was because you learn and see so much more. When I was there, they had none scheduled for the day. The ranger told me to wait a minute and came back and took me on a private tour. It never hurts to ask!!
A picture of the 3 most common birds here -
A Common Murre in the middle, with 4 Gannets below him and several Kittewakes on the rocks on the right.
Below is the one Razorbill I saw while at Cape St. Mary’s.
The one kilometer walk to the island is in an area where sheep graze and they seem to like to stick to the trail.
When the reserve opened one of the agreements with the locals was that sheep could still graze in the area.
Another thing I wanted to do was visit St. Vincents, an area known for having whales come very close to the shore. While it was a couple of hours from the campground I visited twice. And all I ever saw was one Minke whale. I was really hoping to see some Humpbacks. Of course, I was told that a couple of days before I was there they had quite a few whales and they were breaching.
I also visited the Salmonier Nature Park. I think other cities and towns need to visit this park and see how to showcase animals. In addition to the animals the path between exhibits is all boardwalk and showcases the great terrain in the area.
This is kind of a zoo, but most of the animals that you see have been rehabilitated and can not be released into the wild for some reason. All of the animals are animals that can be found in Newfoundland. For example, the Snowy Owl can not fly. As a matter of fact, to see him you walk into a fenced in area, but the fence is only 10 feet or so high with no roof. He was beautiful. I have never seen one this close, with no barrier between him and me.
Some of the animals used to be research animals (the caribou were in a breeding research project) and because of their human contact could not be released once the project was over. Below is a caribou (note the size of his feet!).
And a baby caribou that was about 6 weeks old when I visited.
I previously mentioned the strange looking fire extinguishers. I am getting used to seeing these now.
Pitcher plants -
From Argentia, I headed to Lockston Path Provincial Path in Port Rexton.
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