Why Nova Scotia? Why not? I have always had my eyes set on visiting Nova Scotia mainly because the waves can get really good at the right time of year. So when I was browsing flights and found some good ones into Halifax during my kids break, I jumped on them. A couple of weeks out from the trip, fires threatened to scuttle the whole thing. The Canadian government set restrictions on any hiking in parks due to fire hazards and our main interest was hiking. Luckily some rain right before we left put out most of the fires and the provincial ban on hiking was lifted.
We arrived in Halifax on a rainy day but that seemed fitting for New Scotland.
George's Island off the Halifax harbor.
Only 1 million people live on all of Nova Scotia but half of them are in Halifax. Yet it seems to still have a small town feel to it and we were able to walk around most of it in a day.
The bird situation was a bit limited. We visited the botanical gardens, and it was nice but not very birdy.
American Black Duck
Native Azaelea and a beautiful woman! I can't wait until my native azalea blooms, I just planted one this year and it seems to be doing ok although we have 90 degree temps coming every day for weeks now.
We have rhododendron in the NC mountains, but this bush was bigger than anything I had ever seen anywhere. I just planted one of these too in my yard but it is only shin high.
On day 2 we headed to Peggy's Cove, the famous fishing village about an hours drive from Halifax. On the way there, I spotted a random hiking trail and convinced the family to stop for a hike.
It ended up being a birding hotspot (Polly's Cove) and one of my favorite stops of the trip. Not so much for the birds, but just the interesting topography.
I did end up seeing my first Magnolia and Yellow Warblers here but didn't get any decent pics.
Peggy's Cove was indeed a very picturesque village.
George and Melissa enjoying the nice weather. Luke seemed to pick up a cold or virus right before we left for the trip so he was a bit of a buzzkill and didn't make it into many of the pictures.
We had some lobster rolls at the local restaurant the Sou-wester and then moved on.
Later in the afternoon we hit up some trails in a provincial park just outside Halifax.
The mosquitoes were bad but I was chuffed to see Pink Lady Slippers (orchids) all over the place. I thought they were rare, but here they virtually blanketed the trails.
Paper White Birch forests were super cool.
On day 3 we started our journey east towards Cape Breton. After driving for a couple hours, I needed to stretch the legs and we stopped at a provincial park (Salt Springs). It ended up being a great place to spend a few hours. A nice creek with a little beach was just what we needed to cool off and take a dip.
I believe this was a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher but I didn't get a pic of the front of the bird before it flew off.
Veeries were more often heard than seen.
Lupines were blooming everywhere.
I am going with Dreamy Duskywing on this one, a lifer for me!
Blackburnian Warblers were singing high up.
I think these were Gray Birches.
A Common Merganser floated down the creek out of range before I could get a decent pic.
Pileated Woodpecker
By this time we were getting hungry and the next major town was Antigonish.
Antigonish means where the bear scraped the branches off the tree looking for beechnuts in local first nations language (Mi'kmaq). Amazing how they can fit that all into one word. One thing that we noticed while in Nova Scotia was that place names were either First Nations (Native Canadian), Scottish, English or French - probably close to that order in prevalence.
The town of Pomquet is one of the many Acadian villages that are interspersed around Nova Scotia. The Dune Slacks are an area inshore of the beach dunes that catch water and the birds absolutely loved it back there.
The most pervasive sound was the beautiful song of the White-throated Sparrow. It was cool to hear the song of one of the birds which is common but mostly silent in NC winters.
For me the real star of the show was the Magnolia Warbler of which there were many!
Black-capped Chickadee!
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Orange-belted Bumblebee
We finally drove on to Whycocomagh and posted up in a wonderful cottage right on the water. There were pool tables in the common area and access to Stand Up Paddleboards and Kayaks. George and I took Standups out and paddled over to an area with a Bald Eagle just posing while we slowly moved past.
Here is a photo I took from the top of a small mountain the next day looking down on our cottage. That's George standing in front trying to find us on the mountain while Melissa and I called and waved. I will post some pics from the next days hike in the next post - Part 2.
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