Gaspe 1, Quebec, Canada

 

We woke up really early yesterday and took showers and wondered, “what will we do today?”  What we do is often determined by the weather.  Yesterday was the only day where sunny weather was the prediction.  We decided that if we were going to Bonaventure Island now was the time to do it.  We called our new friends Rose and Jim and they had decided the same thing.  So we agreed to meet in Percé and do it together.  We met and had breakfast then boarded our tour boat which took us around Percé Rock on the trip to Bonaventure Island.  Percé rock has one of the world’s largest natural arches located in water and is considered a geologically and historically rich natural icon of Quebec.  It is a major attraction in the Gaspesie region.  There used to be three arches but two have collapsed with the last one collapsing in 1845.

After cruising around Percé Rock the tour boat went around to the back of Bonaventure Island where there are 200,000 nesting seabirds including 110,000 Northern Gannets.  Thousands of small birds perch on the narrow ledges high up on the rock face and with many more thousands perched in the under cut portions at the case of the rock face. Below all these perching places the walls of the rock are stained white after centuries of bird dropping deposits.

In the many years this island has been studied by naturalists and bird watchers they have identified and recorded over 297 species of birds that stop on this island for long and short resting periods during their migration.  Many stay for the entire breeding season but none in greater numbers than the Northern Gannets.

Once we got to the island we had a 45 minute hike to the opposite side of the island where the Norther Gannets were nesting.  It was a fairly easy walk with plenty of rest stations along the way.  When we got there we saw thousands and thousands of birds. PRC

When preparing for our trip, I read about Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island.  I decided then and there that I wanted to see these places.

Peter suggested yesterday morning that we take the boat ride to these places as the day’s forecast was bright and sunny.  We contacted our new friends, Rose and Jim who we met in St. Flavie.  We had an enjoyable day together.  Afterwards we took the boat out to Percé Rock and Bonaventure Island.  Once the boat landed on the island we took a short hike to a portion of the island where the birds hang out and nest.  They are called Northern Gannets.  Check out the video on the blog.  It’s quite something to see thousands of these birds in one place.  It’s very noisy as you will hear in the video.

What you won’t know from the video is that  all those Gannets in one place is pretty smelly.

After returning from Bonaventure Island we had dinner with Rose and Jim whose company we enjoy immensely.

The next day (Saturday) was an unscheduled day as rain was forecast. It did rain some but not as much as expected. We went to the grocery store and hardware store.  We plan to buy a couple of fresh lobster so we had to buy “Lobster Eating Tools.”  Now all we need is a couple of lobsters.  They of course are a lot less expensive than restaurant lobsters.

Our site is on the water however different than the RV Park in St. Flavie.  In St. Flavie we were literally 40 feet from the water at high tide and 50 yards at low tide.  Here at Camping Griffin, we are on a cliff (160 ft) overlooking the water.  The view is gorgeous.  There are steps going down to the beach which we haven’t found yet…        JY

 

 

The birds in the video below is the first colony we saw after we crossed the island.   Jim and Peter took the longer route back to the dock and came across another nesting colony that was larger than the first one we saw.