The Irish and Shore Loops of the Avalon Peninsula - Whales and Birds

After leaving Sean and his crew, we head south along the Irish Loop – every local person sounds like we are in Ireland.  We meander into all of the outports, cruising the harbours and heading further down to Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve at Cape Race.  We arrive just a little late for the guided hike out to the oldest fossils in the world – darn – we find that many attractions are not publized and the signage to parks and points of interest are scant – to say the least.  Not to worry, we toured the Information Centre and moved on, moving along the last bit of the Irish loop and moving on to the Shore Loop. 

It couldn’t have worked out better.  We are driving through intermittent showers and trying to avoid the potholes in the road and at the same time watch out for moose.  We arrive at St. Vincent and start down the hill into the village.  Kathy spots a whale spout but we’re not sure.  We pull in to a viewpoint and a fellow jumps out of his car and comes over – in the rain, getting wet.  He tells us there are lots of whales right in close after the capelin and he tells us about a gravel road to get up close.  We dash off, park, and scramble down the steep pebbled beach to the shore.  What an amazing sight.  There are thousands of gannets and gulls (we think) out on the water.  The gannets are diving – straight in head first – into the water after the little fish.  There, no more than 20 feet off shore is a humpback – moving back and forth, corralling the fish and having his feed.  We stand there (we were in too much of a hurry to put on our rain pants) in our coats, in the rain, watching for an hour.  Another has joined in the feed.   It is amazing to see these great creatures working the area.  Soaked from the waist down, we head for the car and continue on to St. Bride, our night accommodation.

Trust us, it's a humpback

Moving in

He was breaching - the camera is too slow

There, almost got him in full breach - maybe it's the photographer

Here we are at Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve.  We had met a couple from New Brunswick way back in St. Anthony who told us this is a place that must not be missed.  Hmmm, we are up early – just a bit to eat before heading out – Oh no, the fog is rolling in.  We drive the narrow, but good, road in to the reserve, park and head to the Visitor Centre.  We are told this is a good day – most days you can’t even see the parking lot from the VC.    The trail out to the bird is lovely – so many iris and other sub-arctic plants growing along the way.  We hear them before we see them.  At the end of the trail are thousands of sea birds - gannets, common murres, thick-billed murres, black legged kittiwakes, razorbills, and black guuillemots – gannets have the penthouse on the very top of the cliffs.  We stand on the edge of the extremely high cliffs – and look across a chasm to Bird Rock, a 100 metre all sandstone bank where the birds congregate; photo ops abound.  There they are, unconcerned about us a stone’s throw away from their nests and roosts.   Thousands of others are in the water, other species are situated at their specific place on the cliffs.  Again, we sit on the rocks and watch for an hour.



Bird Rock




A predator got this egg - hmm, we saw a horned owl earlier




Approaching Bird Rock




Gannets at Bird Rock