Thursday, June 16, 2016

Springdale, Lark Harbour, Stephenville... The End

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                 We have returned to the more mountainous side of things.

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Despite the gray and wet, we opted to take a stroll along the boardwalk at the Springdale Estuary.

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                                     Mama Black Duck and her babes.

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                         The boardwalk provides some really nice views.

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You'd think this would be loaded with birds but we didn't see so many.  A few Greater Yellowlegs, Crows and lots and lots of Gulls.

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                      Still, it was a really nice walk with wonderful scenery.

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                                          The fish were jumping!

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                                              This is where we saw them.

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We heard lots of song birds singing but only spotted a Yellow Warbler and this White-throated Sparrow.

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                         And, on the way back, we saw loads more Gulls.

On a nicer day this could have been a very long walk for us.  As it were, the boardwalk was teeming with people.  What we considered gray and wet was some of the best they'd had in a while.

From Springdale we moved on to the very familiar Corner Brook and used that as our springboard for a drive out to Lark Harbour with views of the Bay of Islands.  The drive started out winding through a lot of houses with some views of the water now and then.  We didn't realize that it was going to take us closer to the mountains we had been viewing from Corner Brook.  We also didn't realize that we were about to see our first (and second) waterfall in Nefoundland not to mention some pretty incredible scenery.

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                                              What a beautiful area.

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We were still just a little too early for the Pitcher Plant Flowers.
This one is a remnant from last years crop.

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     This year's flowers have only just begun to rise up.

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      The second of our two Newfoundland waterfalls.

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                                         The literal end of the road.

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         The Bay of Islands is an aptly named Bay filled with Islands.  It is quite scenic.

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                 Thought it was neat how this one island had its own cloud.

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On the way out to Cape St. George, we found an island of nesting and feeding Terns

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                 They were quite something to watch.

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            We also spotted some American Wigeons on vacation in Canada.

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                                          Wigeon / Tern combo shot.

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    We headed out toward Cape St. George as it was reported to be good for whale spotting.

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No whales were spotted by us on this day.  Oh, and for accuracy purposes, that is not a shot of Cape St. George.

Our last planned stop on island was at a Provincial Park where we would look for Piping Plovers.  When we mentioned this to some locals we were talking to in the Stephenville Crossing Walmart lot, the informed us that they had piping plovers in their town right down by the bridge.  The weather was iffy so that sounded good to us!

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   We did not see any Piping Plovers but we did find some skate or shark egg cases,

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                                                      some shells

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                                           and more scenic views.

Well, that is the visual end to our month on the beautiful and diverse island of Newfoundland.  We drove in the neighborhood of 2200 miles and had some amazing experiences.  Thanks for coming along with us.  Long may yer Jib draw.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Grand Falls Windsor Wetlands

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             Before moving on from Grand Falls Windsor we visited their wetlands area.

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We had a nice time walking around the wetlands and the forest in beautiful weather.

The place was alive with flowers.  We'll give you a sample.

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                                Rhodora is in the Rhododendron family.

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              Dwarf Dogwood (aka Bunchberry) blanketed the edges of the trail.

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          Been told this is Cinnamon Fern on its way.

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           We heard many birds but saw very few.

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                            The Starflower's name is somewhat obvious.

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              The beavers have been quite busy.

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                            False Solomon's Seal was truly everywhere.

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Really appreciate it when parks post valuable information.

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                            One of the neatest finds was this Trillium.

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We'd seen Trillium before but on this one the flower was hanging upside down underneath.

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                            You almost didn't know a flower was there.

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                                             It is a pretty little flower.

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                                   It is called the Nodding Trillium.

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                                     Violets had begun to emerge.

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                      Two new insects for us.  This beautiful Caddisfly

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                                  and this Black-banded Orange moth.

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         These Blue-bead Lilies are so pretty to see.

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         We caught sight of an American Toad in Canada.  Was he on vacation?

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                              The Flowering Currant is so tiny and delicate.

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    Seems like a great way to end our visit to the wetlands of Grand Falls-Winsor.