Whales and Birds in Bay Bulls and Witless Bay, NL 11 Jul 2011

Although the day started out cool and misty, we again enjoyed great weather for our boat trip out of Bay Bulls, south of St. John's. Bay Bulls was the first permanent English settlement in Newfoundland, being occupied at least seasonally since 1635. Over the next 2 centuries, French forces repeatedly invaded and burned the town during the struggle between France and England for control of Newfoundland. Each time, the English and Irish inhabitants rebuilt the town and continued their successful fishery. The deep bay is sheltered by headlands on both sides, and opens to the southeast, providing a harbor sheltered from the worst winter storms.

After an initial engine problem and transfer to a different boat, we were off. We motored along the shore, and wondered how the boat in this photo ended up way up above the water line.
















All through Newfoundland, people paint their houses in bright cheery colors - perhaps to offset their long, dark winters?

A pretty waterfall cascaded down the rocky face of the headland. This picture really illustrates why they call Newfoundland "The Rock" - the whole island is rock covered by very thin soil.

The first whales we saw were fin whales - the longest of the whale family, with just a small fin set way back on their bodies. This whale has its head to the right, and the fin on the left - its back end and flukes aren't visible. Be sure to click on the photo to see a larger version. These whales move very quickly, up to 12.5 miles per hour, and we were lucky to have them in sight long enough to get several good pictures.

As the fin whales swam off, we spotted a group of humpback whales, who came right up alongside our boat. A mother and her calf were so close we could almost touch them.

When a whale exhales, you don't want to be down wind - their breath is quite odoriferous. Whale poop on the otherhand, is actually quite pretty!

After watching the whales for a good long time, we continued south along the coast to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, a group of 4 islands that serve as a nesting colony for puffins, murres, and razorbills. Only research scientists are allowed to land on these islands - the rest of us look from the sea. Since these rocky islets rise quite steeply, we were able to get close enough for a good look. If you click on the photo, you can see many birds flying overhead (all those black spots in the sky).

Puffins dig burrows in the hillside as their nests, and what looks like just a grassy hillside is actually pocketed with hundreds of puffin homes.

Tom was able to get a much better picture of the razorbills here than at the Cape St. Mary's rookery. The razorbills have interesting white cross-hatching on their heavy bills.

More puffins:

The green tent is a shelter/blind for the scientists who observe the colony. I can't say I'd like to spend much time perched right above all these birds with their smelly output!

After we returned to Bay Bulls, several of our caravan members met at a local restaurant for what was becoming our standard Newfoundland lunch - fish and chips made with incredibly fresh haddock, and seafood chowder that was different at every place, but always delicious.

In the afternoon, we went to Cape Spear on our way back to our temporary home at Pippy Park in St. John's - Cape Spear and Signal Hill will be the next subject covered in this blog.

Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, July 9, 2011

We arrived in Argentia, NL, early in the morning and were situated at the nearby RV park by 10 am. Since it was a beautiful day we decided to drive to Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, about 50 miles down the coast. This reserve has the most accessible seabird colony in North America, and hosts thousands of nesting Northern Gannets, Muerres, Razorbills, and various sea gulls. The interpretive center is staffed by knowledgeable rangers, and houses interesting displays of the natural inhabitants of this peninsula.

We did the easy walk out to the cliffs where the birds were roosting, and were lucky to find a ranger out at the point helping people identify the various birds.

When following the path across the barrens that cover the Cape, it was hard to imagine what lay just beyond:

This low, sparse vegetation is typical of the area - high winds, harsh winters, salt spray, and shallow soil all combine to keep the plants in check.

Soon we began to see the rugged cliffs, some 425 feet high. The center section in the photo at the left is actually a sea stack, completely separated from the land behind. The separation provides excellent protection for the nesting birds from land-based predators.

The rocks appear white from the thousands of birds roosting on the tiniest of ledges. By the time we were this close, we could hear the cacophony of screeching birds.

In the crevasse in the cliff, common muerres and the occasional razorbill crowd close in their precarious nests.

These are Northern Gannets with their fluffy chicks. The two in the center were engaged in quite a bill-rubbing, head-bobbing, wing-spreading dance. Be sure to click on the photos to be able to see the details!








While we were busy watching the birds, the ranger spotted this minke whale just off shore. All the little black specks on the water are actually birds floating on the surface, and the big white dots on the left are flying gannets.

As we were walking back across the barrens, Tom spotted this male willow ptarmigan in his colorful summer plumage. We figured that a female and her nestlings were probably close by, but we could not see them.

 As with so many of our days in Newfoundland, we were fortunate with the weather - on the day we went Cape St. Mary's, it was sunny and fairly warm. The next day, when we drove the 83 miles across the Avalon Peninsula from Argentia to St. John's was quite stormy, with intermittant rain and high winds. Barbara was very glad for our Comfort Drive steering, which makes handling the motorhome relatively easy even in adverse conditions. The roads were good, and we arrived at Pippy Park, a very nice municipal park with a big RV section, without incident.

Over the next week, we will post three more posts about our adventures in the St. John's area.

Nova Scotia to Argentia, Newfoundland; 8-9 July 2011

After our six nights in Nova Scotia, we all prepared for the overnight ferry ride from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Argentia on the Avalon Peninsula in southeast NL. All 20 rigs caravaned the short distance from Arm of Gold Campground to the ferry dock at the end of the highway. We showed our tickets, attached the provided tag to our propane tank, and lined up for the wait:

We had to be at the ferry dock two hours before sailing time, so we had plenty of time for more visiting and sharing snacks. Shelby had her last chance to relieve herself before being shut in the motorhome for the 14-hour ride. We could have put her in the kennel on board, which would have allowed us to visit her, but after seeing and smelling the kennel we decided we'd made the right choice in leaving her at home.

Our ferry, the Atlantic Vision, is one of the larger of the ferries owned by Marine Atlantic. It runs only in the summer time across the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Cabot Strait to Argentia; in the wintertime, only the much shorter run to Port au Basques operates. In this photo, the ferry is partially obscured by the Marine Atlantic offices.

Once our motohomes were all lined up inside the lower deck of the ferry, we climbed five flights of stairs to pick up the key to our stateroom, then after we'd stowed our overnight stuff, we wandered around the decks watching the loading process. One of the smaller ferries, the Leif Erikson, was arriving from Port au Basques on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland. We were surprised when the bow of the boat opened up even before the ship docked:

As the boat came into the dock, a ramp extended out the open maw to the exit lane. The power of the four bow and stern thrusters that positioned the boat at the dock was quite impressive.

We finally got underway at about 5:30 pm, and slowly made our way out of Sydney Harbor, eyeing the shoreline as we went:

After a social hour with our traveling mates and dinner in one of the dining rooms on board, we retired for the night. The seas were amazingly calm, leaving only the slight vibration of the ship's engines to let us know we were on the water. We would have slept soundly if not for the fact that the built in twin beds were hard as rocks, making it difficult to get comfortable. In the morning we had a buffet breakfast, then again hit the decks to watch our travel up Placentia Bay and into Argentia harbor:

 In the slight mist of the morning, these islands that fill the bay looked serene but mysterious.

A group of us gathered on the foredeck to watch the docking process:

From the left: Anna Leuenberger, Barbara, Sigi Dinse, Ken Jenkins (our wagonmaster), Jim Ploesser, Ursula Dinse, and Ray Leuenberger. Note the ever so stylish caravan jackets - we felt like bumblebees (and I opted for the warmer jacket that I won as a door prize in Shediac, NB)!

After a very short trip from the ferry to the aptly named Sunset Park, Tom walked up the adjacent hill and took this photo of our ferry at the dock. There's not much infrastructure left at this World War II installation:

The weather was lovely, sunny and not cold, so after we were settled, we unhitched the car and drove down to the Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, which will be the next topic posted to this blog.