This post is
dedicated to Barbara’s mom.
We
had a 3-hour drive to the next campground, but if we tacked on an additional
4-hour detour we could go to Cape St Mary’s Ecological Reserve. Should we go?
If we go, we could see more seabirds – we certainly enjoyed seeing the puffins.
This was really our best opportunity. “Okay, let’s do it!”
We
read that it can get so fogged in that you can’t see the birds, so we called ahead
for conditions just before the decision point (2 hours away). “Overcast now,
but we cannot predict the conditions minute by minute,” they said. Well the
weather sounds good now. “Let’s do it!”
The
main road to the area Bill called “a roller coaster.” It went up steep inclines
over seaside cliffs and then down steep drops to little struggling harbor towns
with low speed limits at the bottom of the hill. A pretty drive, but a little challenging
towing the trailer. We’re wondering, “Is it really worth the drive?” Then
Barbara looked in the distance.
“Uh-oh!”
“What?”
“Fog!”
Now
we are really wondering if it is worth it.
Our
GPS reads 45-minutes to go when we turn onto the reserve’s road – a one-lane
road with drop offs on both sides. We only had 2 oncoming cars that squeezed
past us. The fog seemed thick when we arrived. Are we going to be able to see
anything?
Good
news! The guide in the interpretive center said there’s almost always fog, but
this fog shouldn’t inhibit bird watching. We walked the mile long path over the
grass topped cliffs to the bird viewing site 30-ft or so from an island rock
and cliffs filled with seabirds.
We
spent an hour there just watching and photographing the birds and chatting with
a couple from Calgary.
Northern
Gannet
Black-legged
Kittiwake
Common
Murre
Common
Tourists
You
might think we are a bit crazy or even say that we are “for the birds” to take
this long crazy drive just to see birds. We are not avid birders, but think
Barbara’s mom instilled in us an appreciation for them and it brought back good
memories of seeing gannets at L’île Bonaventure
in Quebec with Barbara’s parents in 2001.
We’re
glad we went.
We
ended the day with a drive in search of cell service to wish our dads a Happy
Father’s Day! :-)
