Now that the Olympics are over, its time to finalize another post. It has been said that when the French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived in the 16th century, he called Labrador “the land God gave Cain.” Ask any Newfoundlander and Labradorean and most will tell you God was more than a little generous with Cain, all things considered! Of course, Cain also received black flies, mosquitoes and stouts as well (a whole other story). Twenty-two species of whales visit our coastal waters and there over 350 species of birds with over 35 million seabirds. Wildlife abounds and when you are only slightly smaller in land mass than the state of California and have a population of 510,000; your backyard is their home. We are an outdoor paradise for enthusiasts of all sorts. The Newfoundland and Labrador version of the "Hat Trick" (and no we are not talking about hockey, though we Canadians claim hockey as our national game) is icebergs, whales and birds (puffins and gannets are my personal favourites). The possibility of sighting of birds and whales is a certainty from June through August, add in the majestic iceberg and the things get a little bit more dicey (some years anyway).
Icebergs
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| Up Close and Personal (2012) |
"Iceberg Alley”, is a stretch of Atlantic coastline that runs from the north eastern shores of Labrador down to the southern Grand Banks. Icebergs tend to occur March through early July but the number of icebergs and location they may occur, varies greatly from year to year. The icebergs seen off the coast of Newfoundland originate from the ancient glaciers of Greenland. Without a doubt, southern Labrador and the the eastern coast of the Newfoundland from St. Anthony to Twillingate, offer the highest probability to site icebergs. However, most years will see a few near shore sightings in the Avalon region. In fact, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador has a website to aid in the hunt for icebergs: the Iceberg Finder.
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| Witless Bay 2009 |
Icebergs on the Newfoundland coast travel about 17 Kilometres (10 miles) per day, drive by currents, tides and winds. By the time they have reached Newfoundland, they will have been travelled for approximately 2 years and 1800 nautical miles. What many people don't realize is that up to nine-tenths of an iceberg remains hidden below the ocean’s surface, hence the term "tip of the iceberg".
Icebergs have several different shapes known tabular, blocky, wedged, dome, pinnacle or dry dock (
http://www.icebergfinder.com/iceberg-facts.aspx ). The size of an iceberg can be deceptive, especially in photos or when viewed from land. The Iceberg in the following photos is of the same iceberg. The boat puts the size in context, remember ~10% of the iceberg is above water. Besides making for a great photo, icebergs are harvested for the production of water and vodka; as well as routinely towed as part of the oil shore oil and gas ice management strategy in Newfoundland.
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Boat Passing by Iceberg in St. Anthony, NL (2012)
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Iceberg in St. Anthony 2012
(Boat from previous photo was passing by the back left portion of the iceberg) |
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| Sunrise over Quidi Vidi (G.whiteway) |
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Iceberg in Melrose, NL (2009)
The iceberg is more than a kilometer away from land in this photo, so it's not really small. |
Birds
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| Honey, I'm Home (2013) |
Birds love it here, with Newfoundland boasting some of the largest seabird colonies in the world that are home to puffins, murres, gannets and kittiwakes. Not surprising given our 29,000 kilometres of coastline. So, whether it's by land or sea, birds are easy to find, even in the city!
While the largest breeding colony of Atlantic Puffins (which is our provincial bird) in eastern North America is located on Great Island in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, my favourite puffin site is at Elliston (
http://www.townofelliston.ca/ ), a three and half hour drive from St. John's that has one of the closest land views of puffins. If you are quiet, patient and get lucky, puffins may land within 3-4 feet of you (as was the case for the attached 2013 photos) and they will put on a show that will thrill all. Puffins (also known as sea parrots) are notoriously poor fliers, so watching them can be hilarious. They have difficulty becoming airborne and flap their wings at an amazing 300 to 400 beats per minute to maintain flight. Alas, their landings are no better than their take off and they often crash onto the sea or tumble onto the grass, bowling over other puffins that get in their way.
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| Elliston 2013 |
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Puffin in Flight at Elliston, NL (2012).
The foggy day added a natural bokeh to the pictures.
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| Root Cellar in Elliston, NL |
An added bonus in Elliston is the 133 documented root cellars, some of which have survived nearly two centuries. The root cellar played an important role in the life of the people of Elliston and surrounding areas for the preservation of vegetables and other food supplies, as well as a role children's games and folklore that was passed down through the generation. (
http://www.townofelliston.ca/2ar/rootcellars.html ).
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| Caper St. Mary's Ecological Reserve |
Cape St. Mary's is a seabird sanctuary with the largest nesting colony of gannets in Newfoundland. During the breeding season, the Cape is home to over 24,000 Northern gannet, 20,000 black-legged kittiwake, 20,000 common murre, and 2,000 thick-billed murre, as well as some razorbills, black guillemot, double-crested and great cormorant, and Northern fulmar. While, it is only a few hours drive from the city of St. John's it is advisable to call ahead to check on the weather as fog is often encountered at the Cape (it's just down the shore from Argentia, one of the foggiest places in the world).
(
http://www.greatcanadianparks.com/nfoundland/cstmary/index.htm
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| Gannet Rookery on Bird Rock at Cape St. Mary's (2008) |
Bird Rock is a sea stack standing just a few feet from the main body of the Cape St. Mary’s headland and rising 100 metres from the sea. Millions of years of erosion have worn away the softer limestone that once connected the rock pinnacle to the cliff, thus creating a natural refuge from the land-based predators of birds eggs and chicks. Bird Rock is the second largest gannet rookery in North America.
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| Gannets at Cape St. Mary's (2008) |
Whales
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Humpack Whale Diving (and yes he/she just pooped!)
at Witless Bay Ecological Reserve |
With twenty species of whales in the surrounding waters; including minke, sperm, pothead, blue, orca, and humpbacks between May through September (primarily), watching whales is a common past time. They feed on capelin, krill and squid along the coast and they are seen breaching the surface of the water and playing along our shores. Boat tours are readily available in most areas of the province for those of us unlucky enough not to have sea going vessels or families with them. While I have seen humpbacks breaching, I have yet to captured this activity on camera. In 2012, we took a boat tour out of St. Anthony and had the pleasure of watching two humpbacks check out the boat. We could see them looking up at us from just below the water as they passed underneath and around the boat. You get a real appreciation for their size when they are up that close. Alas no breaching or tail waves that trip.
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Choose the right time of year to visit and you will have a reasonable chance of seeing all three: icebergs, whales and birds, Newfoundland's Hat Trick. We'll even throw in a few moose, foxes and even the odd caribou!
