A birding buddy and I headed to the Southern Shore for a day's birding. Like many, our ultimate destination was Bear Cove Point Road in Renews. This area is frequented by many local birders, particularly during migration. On this trip we decided to park the car and walk the road as it was a rare 17c degrees. My best estimate of the distance of the road is between 2 to 3 kms. It was a very pleasant stroll with sparrows being the predominant bird sighted.
Once at the end of the road, just past the lighthouse is a typical, yet amazing view of this province's rugged coastline. It really is captivating! The original reason for going down this road was to watch birds, but Nature offered up so many unexpected special treats.
On the return walk I thought it would be a good idea to count the sparrows as a curiosity. Since there were so many on the walk in, I thought we would tally a lot of birds. Well, that didn't happen. It was like the birds changed shifts. The sparrows were not so numerous and the warblers were more active.
On the way back we came upon this rabbit. I don't know much about rabbits but I think this is a Snowshoe Hare. I read that they are not native to this province but were introduced in the 1870s.
This little guy was very contented to continue eating grass while keeping an eye on us as we were quite close. It was surprising that it didn't take off but stayed for 3 or 4 minutes. In rabbit time that is a lot.
This was probably my closest and best view of a rabbit. It may be because the road is seldom travelled and the creatures in the area feel quite safe.
In addition to seeing many different species of birds, drinking in the wonder of the waves crashing against the rocks and watching this hare, we also had the great benefit of a three-hour walk and the extra exercise of batting away the black flies. How do you beat that?
