The Seabird Colonies of Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve

Placentia, Newfoundland (48 degrees, chilly, fog, occasional blue skies)

Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve

We are now on the southeast end of Newfoundland in the town of Placentia. On the way we made a brief stop for a couple of nights in Gander to visit the North Atlantic Aviation Museum. It tells the story about how at one time this was the largest airport in the world and many famous dignitaries and pilots have flown into here.

What we found most interesting about the history of this town was during 9/11 and the attack on the World Trade Center thirty eight commercial airlines  were diverted here. The town ended up taking in 33,000  people of many nationalities for five days and welcomed them into their homes, churches, and schools. They feed them and offered support and kindness during such a horrible event for the United States. There is a great book about it called The Day The World Came To Town.  They had a nice display and lots of thank you notes hung on the wall. For a town of 10,000 people it was an incredible feat and further emphasizes what a friendly and welcoming place Newfoundland has been to everyone who intentional and sometimes unintentionally visits. 

We also visited a crash site overlooking Gander Lake where the 101st Airborne Division crashed just off of the runway in 1988. Two hundred and fifty six service personnel died just after returning from a tour of duty in the Sinai. There is a very moving memorial to all including a statue which faces Kentucky where the Airborne is stationed. The same statue is in Kentucky facing Gander. 

From there we headed to the picturesque coastal town of Placentia. We stayed at the Sunset Park for five days over Canada Day holiday. The campground used to be a Navy base. It's not very scenic and mostly just long gravel sites with full hook up and no WYFI. However, it has an interesting history and John and Barry checked out some old bunkers. It's a massive piece of property which is used for many purposes besides the campground. It's also conveniently located to the other overnight ferry which docks here from Nova Scotia,

Sunset Cove

The reason we came here was to visit the Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve. The drive to the reserve is rough and full of pot holes and occasional fog. It's a stark and rocky place which has spectacular views of the sea. Sharing some of these cliffs are a huge colony (15,000 pairs) of Northern Gannets, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Greater Cormorants (new bird), Common Mures, Thick-billed Mures (new bird ) Razorbills, and one Short-eared Owl at the entrance (new bird too). WE have added 50 new birds to our life list since leaving Florida. Sweet!

We arrived in fog and the visitor center told us  how extreme weather is here and summer for the most part is non-existent. An interpretive guide, Chris, took us out along the trail and entertained us with many tales and the thickest Newfoundland accent we have heard to date. He called himself a Bayman and he loved birds and life and his small town called Branch.

John heading to the Visitor Center in the fog

Whales can also sometimes be seen from the cliffs but not on our visit. The hike out was rough at times for me with lots of rocks to maneuver around but certainly worth the effort. Our guide did mention injuries are common mostly due to folks being unprepared for the hike. My only complaint is the reserve could have done more to make the trail more accessible. I'm sure funding is an issue.

Visitor Center and Lighthouse

Sheep grazing

Our visit was so interesting that we decided to return again. Unfortunately Chris had the day off. The staff at the visitor center were great and helped us find some Horned Larks in the parking lot and told us about the owl. More about that later.

The views before getting out to the colony are spectacular. The waves crash up against them and swirl all around. Note the stunning blue and turquoise colors. It's a great place for a picnic.

The picture below is of people out near the colony. If you have trouble with heights you might have issues getting out there. The cliffs dropped off sharply on both sides and one man in our group found it impossible to proceed. The Northern Gannets were draped all over the cliffs on the prime spots while the other bird species were below. It was an amazing sight to see and noisy with the birds calling each other. Some strange smells were involved as well but not too offensive. 

Black-legged Kittiwakes tucked into the cliff

Northern Gannet flying out to sea for a meal

We sat there on the cliff watching the Northern Gannets swirling all around us. They are great flyers and mostly glide with very little wing flapping. We saw many more of these in Quebec, however, it was a different experience here. You could almost touch the birds in flight.

Barry and John 

Nesting Northern Gannets mate for life- look identical 

Norther Gannets mate for life and look identical. Somehow they find each other spring. It's one of life's many mysteries. I don't know how they possibly can recognize each other. 

Common Mures lay their eggs right on the rock - no nest

Thick-billed Mures (with white line along beak) missed with Common Mures

Nesting Northern Gannets covering the rocks 

Greater Cormorant (not a good photo but a new bird for us)

Razorbill

Common Mure eggs - probably a casualty of the gulls

In the parking lot we heard Horned Larks. They are very hard to spot and camouflage so closely with the ground cover. Eventually we saw them and had a fun time watching one of them gathering white feathers for nesting material. He would take one white feather and race across the ground. As he found another one, he'd drop the original one and pick up the new one. On he continued only to drop this one for another. It was so funny.  

Horned Lark

"I think this one is better...no no...this one"

The Visitor Center told us about a Short-eared Owl which had been seen near the entrance. We didn't find it the first time but were thrilled to find it as we left on our last visit. He soared up and down and back and forth across the street. Owls are so cool.

This cool photo was taken by our friend Barry

You don't have to be a birder to love this spectacular place. We sure did!