Bird Rock

Today's excursion was to Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve; the entrance road begins just across the street from our campground.  Even though it was very foggy earlier this morning, by about 11 am things began to brighten up a bit.  Not clear, but  a little clearer.  It was now or skip it, so we started on the road to the Reserve.

Everyone we had talked to about the road mentioned how narrow it was but we found it to be in the best shape of any road we have been on so far in Newfoundland. Yes, it is narrow, there are no shoulders, and two cars can barely pass. The good thing is, there are not that many cars that have to pass.  For us, there was one going out and one coming back.

The beginning of the road.

When we were almost to the Interpretive Centre, we  came across this black sheep standing in the road all by itself.  It eventually moved to the side of the road.

This is a scale model of the reserve in the Interpretive Centre.  It's a good thing that we could see this otherwise we wouldn't know what the reserve looks like, other than a foggy moor.

The inside of Cape St. Mary's Interpretive Centre with resident interpretive naturalists that can answer all questions about the reserve.

The seabird cliffs are the main attraction at Cape St. Mary's. A 1 mile trail meanders along the coast and leads to Bird Rock, a 328 ft. sandstone bank where the birds breed, "nest", and raise their young.

Along the trail to Bird Rock was this patch of irises.

Some more sheep that were frolicking along the steep cliffs along the trail. We were cautioned to stay to the left of the red markers and well away from the edge.  Not that you could see anything with the fog.

At the end of the trail we reached Bird Rock. This is the largest accessible gannet colony in Newfoundland. Gannets are large sea birds with golden heads and a two meter wing span. At St. Mary's there are 11,000+ nesting pairs.

The cliffs on either side of Bird Rock also have "nesting" birds. They don't build "nests" per se, but lay their one egg on the cliffs and ledges. The pairs mate for life and often come back to the same ledge every year (we were told).

There are also murres, 10,000 nesting pairs, on Bird Rock and 10,000+ black-legged kittiwakes.  There is a kind of hierarchy on the rock with the gannets on top, and the kittiwakes a little further down the cliffs, and the murres below the kittiwakes.  You can kind of see that in the picture above. The gannets are the large white birds on top and you can see kittiwakes lined-up on ledges along the sides.

Bird Rock and the adjacent cliffs are described as high rise apartment towers. The ledges, outcrops, overhangs and plateaus offer a variety of accommodation for a variety of seabird species. Each has found a niche that suits its particular nesting requirements.

Another view of Bird Rock.  It took us a little while to identify the chicks which look like little balls of fluff at the feet of one of the pairs. We were told that on a clear day, this time of year, you can often see feeding pods of humpback, fin and minke whales feeding just at the edges of the cliffs