One Fine Day

The birds were singing (mostly White-throated Sparrows) for sunny sunrise for change.  After coffee and breakfast we hiked up to the overlook above the campground where we are staying. The view was spectacular, looking out to the north over White bay and several offshore islands. No whales, but we were able to spot nine icebergs floating by…very slowly. 

While we were watching, a local showed up. He was about our age.  He was looking out at the weather while waiting for his brother to get out of church so they could go fishing. He used to be a fisherman and also worked in th local fish plant until the Cod Moratorium shut everything down and halved the town’s population. Virtually everyone we spoke with either had worked at the fish plant or fished up until that event. Of course the Cod Moratorium was necessary because there were virtually no more cod.

He was saying that with about $3000 worth of electronics, he could find and fish everything out there, which is exactly what was done. Now local fishers can still catch other species, but with heavily regulated seasons. Recreationally, locals can catch 15 cod a day for there own use.

We mentioned the icebergs and he pointed out a big one. It had been hung up on a bank out in the bay until today when enough off the bottom ground off for it to get off the bank. The bank was 160 feet deep.

After the overlook, we walked down to the rocky beach just below the campground to test the waters. They were cold. Ellen announced that it it wasn’t that cold and was swimmable, but she didn’t volunteer to try it.

It was back to camp to try out the Kermit chairs and do some stationary birding. There were some short bushes and trees about ten yards from the end of our site with several sparrows flitting anout and singing, mostly White-throated Sparrows, but also heard and saw a nice Fox Sparrow.

A bit later we walked down to the town surveying the gulls. They have Great Back-backed, Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. We also tallied some Crows, House Sparrows amd a singing Yellow Warbler.

It was just about noon, so we stopped at the Outport Tea House and Museum, which seemed to be the only open spot. They had some interesting local ithems on the menu, such as their fish cakes, but they didn’t serve lunch until 2pm, only breakfast now (Sunday brunch?). Ellen had Grilled Cheese sandwich and I had Blueberry and Partridgeberry pancakes. We split a very different rhubarb crumble with ice cream. Ellen knocked the very spherical scoop of ice cream off and it almost rolled into her lap, but she made a great save and none was lost.

The owners were quite friendly. She did the cooking; he did the talking. It seems every local we met had many stories to tell, much of it to do with fishing and the loss of the fish plant. We also found out about the mines we passed on the way out to Fleur de Lys and into La Scie. The big abandoned pit mine south of Fleur de Lyd was an asbestos mine and there were copper mines outside of La Scie…and there was a gold mine. He had tales of the miners finding large seams of pure gold and secretly slipping some out for themselves.

After “lunch” it was back to camp to sit in the breeze and relax on our one fine day.

I did take some time in the afternoon to figure out what was causing the “clank” when starting and stopping the engine. It turned out to be a loose heat shield. It looked like it had been loose for a long time. A pop rivet a sheared an the end was just waving in the breeze. The loose shield along with the added motion of the exhaust system on the temporary hanger when starting and stopping was enough for tyem to contact and emit a clanking.

The wind came up before dinner so we had our sausages and salad in Speedy.