Hullo, we arrived at our new Airbnb last night. It's a cute little house in a place called Placentia... which used to be called Plaisance when the French were here!
Today we are driving south (and it is windy)... to find a place called Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve.
This is a pretty desolate and barren place in Newfoundland...
Which is saying a LOT because most of NFLD is barren and desolate... but I did spot something off the side of the road...
Some weird flowers... that at first I thought were tulips...
But these are NOT tulips!! They are super weird...
So very strange... with small funnel leaves at the base...
We didn't get a picture of the leaves... but you can see them here...
My first thought was... it might be carnivorous... it just had that look about it....
Ooohhh... there are some old leaves!!!
Anyhow, we looked it up and learned it is the Pitcher Plant and it IS carniverous. Water and digestive enzymes gather in the leaves, which are shaped like pitchers. Bugs land to get a drink and drown because the enzymes eliminate the water tension (where bugs can normally sit on water)... It is also the province's Official Flower and Emblem! Go figure!
So... did I mention this was a desolate part of Newfoundland? We were here for about 15 minutes and nary a vehicle came by!
We then took a side road and finally got here!
We are at the ecological reserve... we got a quick orientation (stay on the trails, stay away from cliff edges)... and headed off.
It was a big foggy/misty... but we should be ok...
Oooohh... over there!!!! That's not snow on the rocks... those are birds!!!!
Lots and lots of birds!!!!
So many birds... that you can even see them in Google Satelite view... All those nubbins... are birds!
It was a bit nippy this morning too!
Between the wind and the mist... oh... and I can smell the birds (or at least their poop) already!
It's another gorgeous piece of coastline.
Along the way... I found a few interesting plants...
This fern was fascinating with those centre fronds... it's apparently a Cinnamon Fern....
And this one was beary interesting... almost looked like an oak leave at various points. We think it's a Sensitive Fern...
We aren't at Bird Rock yet... but we can already see a lot of birds nesting on the cliffs here... well... mostly we can see their poop stains!
Birds make a LOT of poop... and I can see how being higher on the cliff is a more optimal position... cause no-one is pooping on your head!
We are almost there!
Oh wow... soooo many birds!!!
And there's the top of Bird Rock!!!
It's covered with the Northern Gannet... they have a 6 ft wingspan!
That's like... as big as an eagle!
And if you look closely... there are little fuzzy baby gannets as well
It was incredibly noisy here too...
Over here... you have other birds like sea gulls, murres, Black Guillemots and cormorants.
There's a definite pecking order in which types of birds have the upper floors, and which are relegated to the lower floors!
The murres are higher up the pecking order than the seagulls!
Whew... some fresh air finally... and some peace and quiet!
We headed back to Placentia and checked out a few historical sites. There were several forts here that guarded the harbour...
Who thinks this is a good photo idea???
There's a funky structure that bridges the narrow entrance to the harbour...
It's a lift bridge! The middle part just lifts straight up when boats want to pass through. We never saw it do it's thing... but we heard a noise like at a train crossing early in the mornings and figured that's what was happening here!
Onwards to the next adventure!
