Newfoundland Journal
Things we didn’t know about NFLD before visiting in June;
- 1.5 hours ahead of EDT
- Only joined Canada in 1949 (a British “dominion” before).
- “Not a bad day” means it’s foggy with some showers expected today.
- Pronounce it NewFound Land.
It’s a moist and lush land of Spruce, balsam fir, larch, mountain ash and birch… plus mosses and berries and star-tipped reindeer lichen. Northern Waterthrush and Blackpolls and Wilson’s Warblers are common here, breed here, and are singing in all the woods.
It’s a “Fog Factory”, where the cold Labrador current meets the warm Gulf Stream. “Weather is variable in June,” but this week delivered sustained fog and showers.
We went back to spring, with shad (Amelanchier) in riotous bloom. Rhodora canadense on the verge. Some forsythia near houses. Mosses flowering, temperatures around 46–50 F…but Canada is metric so 8–10C.
Here’s my brief account of a wonderful misty moisty visit.
May 30
Jared Clarke, of Bird the Rock, took us birding the Irish Loop in the Avalon Peninsula. I had my first encounter with Black flies (not biting) at laManche. We hunted the willow ptarmigan and watched him peak over the mounds at Cape Mistaken hyperoceanic tundra (no permafrost). We eyed Cloudberries (called “bake apples”), low bush blueberries, partridgeberries ( aka lingonberries) along the hike to the Mistaken Point UNESCO site fossils. The fossils were evidence of 580 million years of life, short compared to the 4 billion years that the Labrador rocks formed or the 550 million year old rocks of Signal Hill in St.John’s.
Morning sky honeysuckle, sheep laurel, Labrador tea along the way, and the surprise of more Willow ptarmigans scurrying while blended into the barrens and a silver fox carrying a dead guillemot.
Cape Race Light and its Fresnel Lens reminds me how our Nantucket Sankaty Light no longer has its Fresnel but a weaker modern substitute.
NFLD is All things cod: fish cakes, pan-blackened, in chowder, cioppino and with pasta.
In 1993 cod-fishing moratorium decimated fishing villages. Houses don’t have trees around them, an indication of the powerful winds and rugged winters.
Overnight at Avalon Inn at Trepassey: fish cakes and seafood chowder
May 31
After Birding around Trepassey, we found my target bird, a lifer, the Boreal Chickadee. We travelled to Cape Pine Lighthouse through the fog, hearing horned larks on the way.
Searching for caribou on the hyperoceanic tundra…but it is too foggy to see the caribou in this southernmost herd. Our fifth willow ptarmigan did cross the road! And 5 River otters scooted from sea to pond at our lunch spot.
At Salmonier, we watched a ruffed grouse chow down on mountain ash while we heard the fox sparrow , another resident, sing its beautiful song.
Dinner and Overnight at The Inn at Mallard Cottages, where I climbed Sugarloaf and caught the only glimpses of blue sky on our trip!
June 1
After hiking Signal Hill to the Battery via Burma Road, Ladies’ Lookout and North Head, we had Breakfast at the Bagel Cafe . Josh tried a fully loaded touton. We went on a search for Graham Blair at the Saturday Farmer’s Market and enjoyed the local event. It featured Shawn Dawson selling picked fiddlehead ferns.
Our O’Brien’s Boat Tours to Gull Island and Green Island in the rain was amazing: from the sea shanties to the millions of murres and thousands of puffins. This was a peak puffin experience, even compared to our visit to a puffin colony in Iceland. But the highlight was watching a bald eagle sent hundreds of thousands of murres into the air at Green island.
Dinner at the Fish Exchange: blackened cod and cioppino for Josh . I discovered. Tunnock’s Carmelo logs with coconut. Oh yes to local candy!
Irish music at The Shamrock. Jameson and the music of Kitchenparti. Fun with a fife.
June 2
After Coffee at the Battery Cafe ( left with blueberry jam) we headed to Cape Spear Lighthouse. Missed the pitcher plants. I hiked to Blackhead. Wet! Should have brought waterproof hiking boots! All day Foggy and rainy…didn’t realize how nice the weather was our first day! A spotted sandpiper posed for me to urge me on.
Josh tried Rocket Bakery for lunch. Explored the Johnson Geo Center to learn about the rocks of The Rock. Dinner at the Fish Exchange: seafood chowder and pasta with seafood.
June 3
I hiked very early around QuidiVidi Lake with yellow warblers and song sparrows. Heard rowers on the lake in the deep fog.
More fog! But it clears when we are an hour or so outside St. John’s during the 3 hour drive to Port Rexton and the BonaVista Peninsula. Tim Horton’s seems like Dunkin’ Donuts, we even tried a glazed donut.
Rocks and water and spruce and larch and birches leafing out, making a pattern of deep green and yellow green. Water everywhere in ponds and mist and fog and showers.
Hike the Skerwink Trail: spruce and Canada bunchberry, along with singing northern waterthrush and white throated sparrows. Kittiwakes nesting on sea stacks. A Young fox poses for us. Wild rocks and views.
Amazing dinner at picture- perfect Fisher’s Loft in Port Rexton. Think Beets,tahini and sunflower seeds, with blackened garlic aioli. Scallops. Pannacotta with partridgeberries.
Testing more Canadian sweets: jam jams and Mackintosh toffee.
June 4
Trinity Eco-Tours to seek the Stellars’s sea eagle, whales and the amazing NFLD coast. Rain and fog..and gannets, murres, puffins and 2 bald eagles as well as the kittiwakes and herring gulls.
We visited the Site of filming of Grand Seduction, and Random Passages, as well as Ireland’s Eye, which was one of the fishing after 1949 and Newfoundland’s joining Canada.
Josh retired to read and I headed out to hike at Lockston Path Provincial Park after I got out of my wet clothes. Incredible star-tipped reindeer lichen (cladonia stellaris), pink earth lichen ( Dibaeis baeomyces) and other mosses amidst the spruce.Rhodora canadense, Labrador tea and Canadian bunchberry; old man’s beard moss on the trees and so many lichens. A singing hermit thrush.
Jared had suggested the park for the possibility of the black-backed woodpecker, and it was good to have tree cover on the hike to Northwest Pond. We returned to Trinity for fish and chips at the Dock Marina, and a piece of partridgeberry pie.
June 5
Another foggy day! We’ve had adventures in the fog and rain, and today we will try Fox Island Trail.
I hiked up to the top, including the steep ascent with rope holds. A flock of white-winged crossbills yippered in the trees. Cloudberry flowers in the bogs. Views of cliffs and water. I had quipped that Newfoundland is Iceland without the volcanos, sheep and waterfalls…but we saw many waterfalls over the cliffs to the ocean yesterday and today.
The three hour drive back to St. John’s seemed quick. After checking into the Alt Hotel, I took advantage of the lack of rain to explore on foot the “jelly bean houses” and took in The Rooms, a combined art, history and science museum. Loved the artwork, especially Max Streicher, altonimbus.
After walking down Water Street to the Adelaide Oyster House, where we didn’t have Oysters, and back to the Alt Hotel in the rain, we are done with fog and rain. But as they say “ if you let the fog and rain stop you, you wouldn’t do anything in Newfoundland!” My jeans and sneakers are soggy.
June 6
We are departing, together with a Graham Blair print, blueberry jam and partridgeberry spread, sea salt and Local Jacobean chocolates! And the ideal of this boreal land of evergreen and water everywhere, in ponds, streams, rivulets, rivers, ocean. So life-giving to boggy plants and animals. And actually hearing blackpolls, which I usually can’t hear in the city. And the friendliest people.
