Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve -- and More!

Here we are at our last stop in Newfoundland.  We're camped at Sunset RV Park in Argentia.  We only have a day to explore the Cape Shore Drive, south from here looking west toward the Burin Peninsula, around the point of the peninsula at Cape St. Mary's, and back around again looking east across St. Mary's Bay toward the eastern shore of the Avalon Peninsula.

We started our drive south through the nearby town of Placentia, which is very picturesque:

In 1655, the French, who controlled more than half of the island of Newfoundland, and most of Atlantic Canada, made Placentia (French: Plaisance) their capital. They built Fort Plaisance in 1662, which was followed by Fort Royal in 1687, and Fort Saint Louis in 1691.  In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht forced the French to abandon their Placentia Bay settlements and migrate to Louisbourg, and Placentia became a British possession. Many of the French fishermen who had to abandon the fisheries in Placentia ended up at the fisheries in Isle Royale, otherwise known as Cape Breton Island.  From the mid-18th century through to the 1830s, numerous Irish immigrants from Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny and Cork settled in Placentia, so that the population of the modern town is largely of a mixture of West Country English and south-eastern Irish background. In the 18th century there were also a large number of settlers from the Channel Islands, from which Jerseyside, a prominent section of the town, derives its name.

We drove on through Placentia toward our first goals, which was Point Verde Lighthouse.  It perches on a headland south of Placentia, with a pleasant view of a barachois and cove south of the town:

Looking south from the lighthouse, we could see the stony beach extending on some distance:

We climbed toward the lighthouse, and, as we walked, Kathy spotted some giant mushrooms, who were probably the most fun guys we have ever met!

Ultimately, however, our attention turned to the Point Verde Lighthouse, which is a modern light:

The original lighthouse was much more interesting architecturally:

The current square, steel skeletal tower surmounted by an enclosed lantern room was put in place at Point Verde in 1990. This tower, a fog signal, and a shed, all enclosed in a chain link fence are all that remain on the point.  However, we cannot be sad for lighthouses that pass on, because their lights still shine in our hearts.

Dispensing with the purple prose, we drove further south to Gooseberry Cove Provincial Park, where Kathy hoped to find some more sea glass:

We certainly found natural beauty, even before we started our beach walk:

The beach was flat (good for finding sea glass), sandy (sometimes good, but not when the sandy beach is without gravel and rocks and a town nearby):

Kathy started her search, but quickly got distracted by the natural beauty everywhere around her:

We did find a mixture of sand and rocks that might have concealed sea glass, but, alas, it was along a stream emptying into Placentia Bay, and not along the shoreline itself:

It was time to move along, and so we did.  We realized it was lunch time, and so we found a great little local restaurant, Da Birds Eye in St. Bride's, where we enjoyed a traditional Newfie lunch and replenished our energy for the afternoon's adventures.

And adventures aplenty there were.  Our first stop after lunch was at the Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve. It is one of the best and most accessible places in the world to see nesting seabirds, and one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s major seabird colonies. During the breeding season, it is home to 30,000 Northern gannet, 20,000 black-legged kittiwake, 20,000 common murre, and 2,000 thick-billed murre. In addition, more than 100 pairs of razorbill, more than 60 pairs of black guillemot, plus double-crested and great cormorant, and Northern fulmar nest there.

What makes it so spectacular, however, is that all these birds can be seen from land, as close as 50 feet away.

The birds nest along cliffs and rocks lying west of the Cape St. Mary's Lighthouse in the Reserve:

Most of the Northern gannets, for example, make their nests on “Bird Rock”- a 100-meter-tall stack of sandstone that is separated from the viewing area by a chasm only a few meters wide. The gannets’ courtship, nesting, and feeding behaviors, interactions, and delicate flying maneuvers over the crowded sea stack are endlessly fascinating and easily observed from the natural, cliff-top viewing area, even on foggy days.

Bird Rock is reached by a 1.4 km footpath through the open meadows that top steep cliffs, where wild iris grow and sheep sometimes graze. Mosses, lichens, alpine wildflowers, and low-growing shrubs carpet the seemingly treeless plateau over which visitors walk. The area has ponds, bogs, brooks-and sheer cliffs plunging down to the sea. Offshore, during the summer, whale spouts can often be spotted.

We hiked out along the cliffs and soon reached a point overlooking Bird Rock:

It was as spectacular as advertised.  With a camera or a monocular, we could watch the Northern Gannets as they nest and congregated all over the rock:

There were still some chicks that had not yet finished molting.  When they are young, they have white fluffy molting feathers all over their bodies.  As they mature, the molting feathers fall off, leaving grey true feathers which are necessary to protect their bodies from the cold air and salt water.  As the chicks finish molting, their mated parents look after them and help pluck the molted feathers off them, preparing them for the fateful day when they will try their young wings and new feather in flight above the deadly rocks and crashing waves below their nest:

We are told that only one-third of the young gannets survive the effort to fly and migrate south.  Mated adult gannets have one chick a year and usually return to the same nest, and each other, for an average of 10 years.  This means that each gannet pair might produce 3 offspring that survive to adulthood, to mate in turn and raise their own chicks on Bird Rock.

We pondered the mysteries of the gannets and Bird Rock as we walked back to the visitor center and the Point St. Mary's Lighthouse, which stands nearby:

It was time to leave Point St. Mary's, and we drove west and north around the peninsula.  Our next stop was Cataracts Provincial Park, where we had the privilege to look down on waterfalls plunging down through cataracts on the eponymous Cataract River.  The Ellis Memorial Bridge, built in 1926, spans the river directly over the largest and deepest of the falls:

The trails, boardwalks and stairs are dramatic and offer a variety of views of the river and falls from many angles:

The trail and stairs take the hiker down to the level of the river, where, we got our favorite view of the falls - tumbling down toward us and rushing into the base of the canyon, to rush onward and away from us toward Placentia Bay:

By the time we finished our visit to Cataracts Provincial Park, our day was done.  We still have another 45 minute drive back to our campground.  We spend the drive discussing the impressive gannet bird colony and the rushing, roaring cataracts, and agreed that this peninsula drive was one of the more dramatic natural experiences we have had in Newfoundland.