The last stop for the day is the Cape St Mary Ecological Preserve, if only we can get there. The road past Placentia starts to have more and more potholes and we almost expect that at a point it will become a dirt road of fall into the sea. But it stabilizes after a point and the side road to the preserve itself is actually in a very good state. When we arrive there are only two other cars in the parking lot and we assume that the visitor center in the distance is closed and the welcoming committee is the gull patrolling the parking lot.
Surprisingly the visitor center is open so we take a tour through it trying to understand what birds we have a chance to see, basically only gannets. But at least the gannets are still here something easily seen from the observation window in the distance.
And now it is time to do the half mile hike to the colony proper, it is a level hike but very exposed to the wind and cold, luckily it is not winter yet and it is not raining but still the wind….It is blowing full force, quite good for gannets but not for us really.
As we approach the cliff edge we are also starting our encounters with the gannets, the flying ones not the nesting ones. They are flying alone and in groups seemingly without care and without rhyme or reason as far as we can see. Maybe they just want to be away from noisy kids for a while.
It is quite a scenic hike and we really enjoy it, there are great cliff views, a level trail and birds all around us, what more could we want?
We have hiked already quite a bit, when we look back we can barely see the visitor center far in the distance. Here we also find a gull chick who is quite assertive, he really doesn’t like to be disturbed and would prefer that we give him something to eat or something…we are not sure as he cannot talk and tell us what exactly he wants.
And then we are at the Gannet Rock, it is a small island just off the coast, it seems like we could just step on it…if we would be giants. The gannets are fledging later in the year than most other seabirds which means we can still see them even though we are here really late in the season.
We watch them for a while enjoying the antics of the chicks and the exasperation of the parents who are really looking forward to the end of all this parenting and enjoying the carefree life.
And then it is time to start our return hike which is quite fun as we see quite a few new birds and other wildlife like an American Pipit and the weird Western Dusky Slug. Actually slugs, we see hundreds and hundreds of them or at least so it seems as we try to avoid them with every step that we take.
We enjoy the return trip otherwise with continuing great views, now with the added bonus of the sunset. Back at the parking lot there is still a RV left, maybe they are sleeping here for the night? We walk to the nearby lighthouse, which like most lighthouses here is still functioning and we enjoy watching it go round and round and round…oops did we fall asleep? The drive back is is quite an exciting one as we always feel like the road will be closed right after the next bend and it is dark already and going back would take hours but luckily all of them are open and we make it to Trans-Canada and then back to Saint John’s. There we eat at Horton’s which is way more breakfast oriented than we expected, not what we wanted at 11PM, and then it is back to the hotel where we fall asleep almost immediately.
