Newfoundland Birds

No need for a boat! The Southeast Avalon offers excellent viewing of marine mammals such as whales and seals from coastal vantage points.

Humpback and Minke whales come inshore from spring through early fall to feed on Cod, Capelin and Sand Lance. In summer, small pods of migrating Fin Whales also pass along the coast, identified at distance by their distinctive tall and narrow ‘blows’. Occasionally single Fins, the second largest of all the whales, can be found feeding inshore with Humpbacks and Minkes. Unlike the typical “humpback” diving profile and balloon blow, the Fin’s very long mostly straight body shape sets it apart.

You can look for whales from many vantage points. Good observation spots include: the interpretive site at Bear Cove along Highway 10; headlands and high points along the Cape Race Road, especially next to lighthouse at the Cape itself; Cape Pine lighthouse; St. Shotts foghorn station; and of course at the famous great pebble beach at St. Vincent’s, where the whales swim so close to shore that you can hear them and smell them as well as see them. (The particularly geography of the coast, which drops away rapidly to deep water, means the whales swim and feed within metres of the beach.)

From late fall through spring whales are scarce. It may be that the Humpback whales sighted at this season are young males not old enough to migrate back to Caribbean to breed.

Typical view of Minke Whale, small size and cycle-shaped dorsal.

A humpback whale feeding.

Gray Seals more commonly seen in the lower St. Lawrence and in parts of the Atlantic provinces are mostly absent from the Avalon. We are fortunate to have a colony of 20 to 30 animals best seen with binoculars swimming in the waters of the bay at Chance Cove Provincial Park or hauled out on the rocky island offshore, known as Black Rock.. The rocky islands are best seen (with a telescope) from the Chance Cove Coastal Trail. Gray Seals have also been occasionally found basking on rocks around Cape Race or in coastal waters along the south coast as far as The Drook and very occasionally west to the great beach at St. Vincents.

The male Gray Seal is easy identify by its horse-head profile and large size. The female is smaller and more easily confused with the Harbour Seal.

Harbour seals are much more common locally. They are likely to pop up anywhere along the coast You often see the head of a lone seal staring at you from the waters of most southern shore beaches. Like the Gray Seal they also haul out to bask on rocks along our coasts. Two excellent places to look for Harbour Seals basking are from the north side of Renews harbour where you can often see up to 20 hauled out on the rocks at low tide. Harbour seals are also often seen basking in the bay half a km north of the Cape Race Interpretive Centre.

Small group of Harbour Seals on rocks near Cape Race.

Other marine mammals are seen less frequently. Long-finned Pilot Whales are very occasionally observed close to shore. They feed almost exclusively on squid, which is much more prevalent further north in the protected waters of Conception Bay. Northern Right Whales have been expanding their summer range from their traditional grounds at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. In recent years they have been recorded in the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the south coast of Newfoundland. A few years ago an outlier was recorded off Cape Race.

White-sided and White-beaked Dolphins are found in offshore waters. You can look for them from vantage points throughout the area but they rarely venture inshore. It is possible to confuse these dolphins with Bluefin Tuna which are increasingly recorded about the south coast. Dolphins tend to be more purposeful in their behaviour while tuna are much more likely to churn up the water and mill about as they feed on schools of bait fish inshore. The much smaller Harbour Porpoises are occasionally seen along the coasts in small pods.

Roving pods of Orcas (Killer Whales) have been spotted off Cape Pine, Cape Race and off the Lower Coast in Trepassey Harbour. Unlike those on Canada’s west coast, Orcas are not a year-around resident of the Avalon, but they have been seen in summer more frequently in recent years. While there is no specific location to look for Orcas, the boat tours to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve provide the best chance for a random encounter.

For more information see the Marine Mammal Checklist in this section.