Quebec Whales and Trails, Part 5: Grand-Jardins National Park

On September 23rd, 2023,  our NatHab group departed from the Manoir Richelieu hotel for an hour-long drive into the Grand-Jardins National Park. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

This park suffered a severe burn in 1999, which consumed much of the ground we will cover this day. How will it look 24 years later?

Before reaching the visitor center, we stopped at a viewpoint and spotted a black bear wandering away in the distance.

At the center were exhibits, a picnic ground, and so forth. I took a photo of this map,

and of this negative-silhouette artwork. Note the second, positive-silhouette caribou in the distance, seen through the cutoff of the immediate one.

We set off to hike in this recovering area. Things to investigate and identify included scat,

and baby trees.

We ventured downhill and passed by a stream, encountering mosses and lichens.

Our turnaround point was a lake with an old cabin, a pit toilet, and a few canoes. Here we lingered for a while.

We wound our way back up a gentle slope.

An intersection for more distant destinations.

There were plenty of places to visit, had we several days to explore.

All too soon, it was time to depart. A long drive lay ahead to reach Manoir du Lac Delage, our home for the next two nights. Our route ran through the outskirts of Quebec City and then headed north.

We stopped for some souvenir and refreshment opportunities along the way. Here our guides, Julia and Jackie, show off some plunder.

The Manoir du Lac Delage sprawls across an immense property, enabling it to host weddings and other events. This is a view from the "back yard."

Joan admired the sunset from the floating dock at the lake.

Tomorrow, our final day of exploration here in Quebec, we'll explore the Jacques-Cartier National Park.

Quebec Whales and Trails: Part 4, Parc National des Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie

On September 22, 2023, our NatHab group explored the Parc National des Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie. The first stop, roughly an hour northwest from our hotel, was a hike to a viewpoint. We disembarked from our bus on the far side of the river Malbaie. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

The river appeared quite tannic at this time of year.

We're taking the red dots for an out-and-back.

The first section was a stroll along a gravel road.

After a while, we reached a true trailhead.

In English, "Maple Grove Trail"

We passed by some fascinating (reindeer) lichen, a token of clean air.

In closeup.

Pollution-sensitive bony-beard lichen dangled, flourishing, from some trees.

It wasn't long before we arrived at the viewpoint.

Our guides, Julia and Jackie encouraged us to spend a few minutes in quiet contemplation, with cliffs ahead and water below.

Then we retraced our steps and reunited with our bus and driver. It was only a short drive to the visitors center next to an old dam, originally built for logging, and picnic tables, canoe rentals, etc. Lunch was our first order of business!

An overview of the area. Click to enlarge.

The cliffs above the Malbaie are among the tallest rock faces east of the Rockies.

The watercraft zone is marked off above the dam.

Here is a zoom-in map showing the shorter hikes and the watercraft area.

Joan and I trod the shorter loops/climbs, which included an open-air viewing shelter (not much bird activity at this time of year) and some rough trail sections that we managed to navigate, but would have deterred casual walkers. In this photo, we're peering down towards the footbridge and dam.

Then we decided to hike upstream alongside the watercraft playground. After several bends in the river, we spotted the aquatic portion of our group, still happily paddling around, and decided to return to the visitor's center; we seemed to have enough time to explore the trail on the west bank below the dam. The dam itself hosted exhibits about the logging activity. The cut trees would be corralled (manhandled) into rafts that would float downstream to the mills. Today, those waters look like this.

We explored the trail on the west bank. The Malbaie supports many critters, including owls, as evidenced by the rain-washed pellets we took to Julia and Jackie for examination.

Photo of specimens in situ.

The foam patterns on the dark river were intriguing.

Joan and I then recrossed the bridge just in time to board the bus, and, well satisfied, our group returned to the Fairmont in La Malbaie.

Tomorrow, we'll explore the Grands-Jardins National Park, a core element of the Charlevoix Biosphere Reserve, and move to a new hotel.

Quebec: Whales and Trails, Part 2

On September 20th, 2023, our NatHab group set out for our first whale-watching adventure with Essipit Whale Watching Tours. On arrival, we received briefings on getting in and out of the mandatory full-body suits, using colossal plastic bags to protect electronics, and other points before loading into two zodiacs and zooming out into the St. Lawrence.

 

The water remained a bit choppy after yesterday's crummy weather. It took me a while to puzzle out a system for both protecting my glasses and my camera from the spray while using both; this limited my photography (the next day's are better). My first pic, including other zodiacs (click on any image to enlarge).

It's chilly out on the water!

Here's a pair of humpback whales -- the tiny dorsal fin belies their true size.

Our other zodiac.

The broad channel (about 25 km / 15.5 mi. ) hosts ocean-going cargo and tour ships here and deeper into Quebec.

Sometimes the whales surfacebarely enough to exhale and get some air.

A dive begins with an arcing posture.

More whale pictures will arrive in the next blog post.

 

Our afternoon was spent at the Baie Sainte-Marguerite, part of the Saguenay Fjord National Park. The fjord feeds into the St. Lawrence:

This bay is well known as a place where female beluga whales and their calves spend time.

Admiring the wildlife at the visitor's center (closed).

The trail from the visitor's center crossed a river feeding into the bay.

The route wandered gently down towards the Saguenay, past old structures and campgrounds. We arrived at a point looking across the bay, joining other onlookers. However, it was late in the season for belugas.

A research vessel passed by.

After our tromp back to the visitor's center, it was time to return to our lodgings at the Hotel Tadoussac. (This photo is from the next morning, when the light was better.)

The view from the back.

Next, our final and best whale-watching day.

Iceland: Foxes, Whales, and Birds

Saturday, 7/27/2019, was the next to last day of this Natural Habitat Adventures Iceland expedition. Our group first walked down to the dock for a body suit fitting, preparation for whale watching later in the day. This "rib boat" would be our vessel.

The suit fitting session.

After we'd picked and adjusted our suits we clambered out of them and boarded a small bus to ride to Súðavik. Along the way we passed three cruise ships departing Ísafjörður.

These ships clearly carried several times more people than the population of the town!

Súðavik, population ~170, was engulfed in an avalanche in January of 1995, killing twelve, and the town site was moved to a safer location.

The old town now contains a few summer houses and a children's playground, a project begun by a Súðavik resident, Vilborg Arnarsdóttir, whose son died in a car crash in 2001. Click on the image to enlarge.

 The playground covers a wide expanse of land,

and is now supported by multiple entities. One section hosts a miniature zipline,

which most of our group tried at least once. Then we exited through the entrance.

From here it was just a one kilometer walk down to the Arctic Fox Center.

The center focuses on fox biology, distribution, and history, plus the strained relationship between foxes and humans.

Arctic foxes come in two color morphs, "white" and "blue." Prowling the shores and open (not snow covered) ground for food, foxes in Iceland are much more likely to be blue morphs than their cousins in the rest of the Arctic.

The center also hosts an orphan male fox, Móri, whose parents were killed in a hunt in 2015. He was rescued along with his sister, who didn't survive. Móri now serves as an ambassador fox. He's a blue morph.

The foxes can be aged post-mortem through their teeth. A 3, 5, or 7 year lifespan is typical in the wild, but a few individuals per 1,000 have lived up to 12 years.

Outside the center was a pair of stilts. Our guides gave them a try.

Another short walk took us to the town dock. There our body suits and the rib boat were waiting for us. I popped a meclazine to be safe.

This was the view from my seat in the boat.

The folks up front catch most of the spray.

We were on the lookout for spouts as the rib boat zoomed. The whale watching started out sparse, but then the humpbacks began to put on a show. I could flood you with whale photos,

but instead I've put together sequences that convey, weakly, the majesty of the flukes as the whale dives to feed.

And ... click on the image to enlarge ...

The pattern of light and dark is different on every whale, just like a fingerprint, and identifying individuals enables researchers to follow the whales' feeding habits, ranges, and so forth.

Floating rafts of puffins, however, paid no attention to the whales.

Then it was time for the rib boat to deposit us on Vigur Island, a privately owned bird sanctuary and popular tourist stop.

 After depositing our body suits we were issued flags on long poles, to ward off dive-bombing arctic terns and other avians offended by human proximity to their nests.

We preceded and were followed by other groups; the organizers must have scheduled visitation slots.

This puffin, fish in beak, was waiting us out, not wanting to reveal the location of his burrow.

Arctic tern and chick.

We took a longer loop avoided by the cruise ship groups, going onto a rugged path and stepping up and down the rocky bluffs for more sightings, including this solitary chick,

and this rock formation that looks like a face.

Now we were on the windward side, and waves crashed into the rocks.

Sometimes we had an audience.

After the walk we enjoyed a snack at the cafe on the south side of the island. Joan and I checked out the display about traditional down processing; first, a sample of the "raw" down of eider ducks collected from nests.

The equipment for cleaning and combing the down.

One more time we had to wriggle into the body suits, and bounced through the swells as the rib boat roared back to Ísafjörður. Joan and I landed both giddy and tired. The next day would be our last full day in Iceland, a land-based tour of remotest spots in the Westfjords.