July 21st, 2006
sea monsters and giant cormorants
On our final day in Nova Scotia, we stopped off to search for the Giant Cormorants and frightening Sea Monster that reside near the village of Parrsboro. As on past occasions, we found the Cormorants teaming up with the Sea Monster while launching an assault on a passing cruise ship (see above – click on image for larger view).
We spent the earlier part of that afternoon hiking at Thomas Cove near Eonomy – our second hike at that conservation area during this trip. We’ve hiked there in the past and it may be our favourite spot. I’ll post more about it later today after I get some photos uploaded.
This may have been our best trip ever to Nova Scotia. We spent almost all of our time hiking on trails or along beaches — pretty much the same thing that we do here at home. And speaking of home, we arrived back at the farm last night. I made a vegetable stirfry for dinner, which was nice after not being able to prepare much of our own food for the past week or so, although the Two Chefs restaurant in Bridgewater kept us well provisioned for several days. Their pakoras and samosas made handy trail food during our all-day hikes.
There remain a few hikes to forests and along beaches that I’ll be posting about over the next few days as they were trips that are well worth sharing, so stay tuned for those. In the meantime, I’ll be catching up on the flora and fauna activity here at the farm. I can’t believe how much things have grown over the past two weeks. And the insects are abundant too. In fact, at this very moment, I’m watching a couple of Monarch butterflies perched on the milkweed outside the window. Although we were both quite happy in our ‘heart’s home’ out east, it’s also nice to be back home here at the farm once more.
Tags: Cormorant, Sea monster, Bridgewater, Two Chefs Restaurant, Thomas Cove Conservation Area, Economy
July 21st, 2006 at 3:06 pm
I didn’t know there was a Loch Nessie there in Nova Scotia. Interesting. Just how big are those cormorants? Or, how small is that cruise ship? Did you stay long enough to see the attack? Glad to hear that the trip went well and you made it home safely. I’m looking forward to the round up of insect news from your neck of the woods. So much was happening just before you left. It’ll be good to see how everyone is doing.
July 21st, 2006 at 5:04 pm
It must be terrifying for all the little plastic people, cowering behind their portholes …
July 22nd, 2006 at 2:36 am
Robin & Xris – The cruise ship is rather small. Xris is right… little plastic people are about all it could carry. The seamonster is in a large pond in Parrsboro. It’s been there for awhile. We always stop to watch the Cormorants that congregate on it (this is a photo from summer 2005 – click on it to see larger view).
July 22nd, 2006 at 10:33 am
Welcome home! What a trip it’s been for all of us, and thanks for your steadfast efforts in describing it.
Tacky though, very tacky, but nonetheless a clever hoot!
On a sad note, our lepidopterans haven’t yet made a comeback. I thought maybe they were just between cycles, but now I think the heat and drought have broken the cycle for many of them at the larval stage. We are getting rain though now, possibly through next week, and lower temperatures and maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a butterfly influx soon.
July 22nd, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Wayne – yes, what a trip it has been — for everyone! It’s been fun writing up these little reports on our travels. I’m sure we’ll end up referring back to them in future just to remind us of what we did and where we were on certain days. I have a couple of more entries to write up — Thomas Cove (I’ve just posted a “part one”), and The Hawk. However, now I’m getting right into the insect scene back here at the farm. The situation is quite different than what you’ve described. The Leps are plentiful. In fact, yesterday afternoon, I went for a walk around the trails here at the farm and saw a Monarch about every couple of hundred feet along the trails! I’ve never seen quite so many at this point in the summer, so they must be having a good year. Plenty of other Leps as well. I shot quite a few photos yesterday afternoon and am just heading out to do some more insect photography in a few minutes. Sure am glad that Don got all of the trail cut before we left as the vegetation is going wild here — a couple of trails that got missed are now almost impassable. I’ll try to get an insect post or two up in the next day or so.