whale watching St Lawrence River (1 Viewer)

[Steve Babbs]

Hi

I'm going to be mammal watching/birding around the St Lawrence River, Quebec in August, for three weeks. Has anyone got any good tips?

I know Tadoussac is the main spot but I've just read a trip report where their best blue whale sighting were from Ste Anne de Portneuf. Not sure if this was just luck, or whether it's a better spot for this species. Any recommendations for the best companies to use or any other general thoughts would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Mysticete]

I visited Tadoussac for a day a few years back, when the international marine mammal conference was in Quebec City. That was during October, so the tourist season was kind of over with.

We had Beluga near the car ferry that you have to take to get to Tadoussac, and we had pretty good looks at Minke and Humpback Whale, as well as Gray Seals.

Can't give you much in the way of other helpful advice, although I think there is some more information on mammalwatching.com. Also be prepared for French; away from Quebec City it was quite difficult to find anyone who spoke English, or at least admitted to doing so. This included the staff handling reservations for the whale watching trip!

The trips are done in both English and French, but I did notice that there was a lot more said in French than English. Make sure to keep an eye out yourself for whales...we had the belugas near the Ferry crossing while actually on the whale watching boat, and they were never called out

 

[Steve Babbs]

Cheers Mysticete. My wife's working on the French: I'm language monitor when we go to Spanish speaking countries.

 

[locustella]

What they do in the St Lawrence River, why they like it ?

 

[Peter C.]

I've been down the river a couple of times, once on a dedicated trip to look for whales. Both times we tented near the town of Grandes-Bergeronnes, in a campground (Cap du Bon Desir; It's on a slope above the river, so you get great views - saw my first Minke whale there, right from shore!). I much prefer the stretch between Grandes Bergeronnes and Les Escoumins to Tadoussac itself, since the latter is quite crowded and touristy in August.

On the second trip, we got a boat tour out of Bergeronnes (I think). This took us back upstream a bit towards Tadoussac, because that's where most of the cetaceans were hanging out at the time. We saw a few humpbacks, and lots of porpoises out there- but he best part was right near the beginning of the trip, when we lucked in a big Blue, all by itself! It didn't do anything dramatic, but when it "rolled" through the water, that back seemed to go on forever!

Another place I recommend is up the Saguenay River a bit. There is a boardwalk through the forest that takes you out to a stretch of river where the Belugas congregate. If your interested in photographing them, the views you'll get there are much better than from the boat. This place is up RTE. 172 a few km. from Tadoussac, I'll have to look up exactly where.

What they do in the St Lawrence River, why they like it ?

I think it has to do with the meeting between the fresh water from the Saguenay and the brackish waters of the St. Lawrence. I believe this enriches the water in some way, promoting growth of small invertebrates, which lead to a greater concentration of prey items for whales and seals.

Peter C.

 

[locustella]

Waders and many other birds n migration prefer estuaries over open sea. Because of invertebrates in the mud of shallow water, on seaweed washed up on the shore, so called underwater meadows etc. There were seals in such place in Puck Bay in Baltic Sea until ice required for breeding disappeared forever, fishermen eradicated them and eruptions on the sea test range scared.
But there are probably many rivers similar to St Lawrence River.

 

[Steve Babbs]

I've been down the river a couple of times, once on a dedicated trip to look for whales. Both times we tented near the town of Grandes-Bergeronnes, in a campground (Cap du Bon Desir; It's on a slope above the river, so you get great views - saw my first Minke whale there, right from shore!). I much prefer the stretch between Grandes Bergeronnes and Les Escoumins to Tadoussac itself, since the latter is quite crowded and touristy in August.

On the second trip, we got a boat tour out of Bergeronnes (I think). This took us back upstream a bit towards Tadoussac, because that's where most of the cetaceans were hanging out at the time. We saw a few humpbacks, and lots of porpoises out there- but he best part was right near the beginning of the trip, when we lucked in a big Blue, all by itself! It didn't do anything dramatic, but when it "rolled" through the water, that back seemed to go on forever!

Another place I recommend is up the Saguenay River a bit. There is a boardwalk through the forest that takes you out to a stretch of river where the Belugas congregate. If your interested in photographing them, the views you'll get there are much better than from the boat. This place is up RTE. 172 a few km. from Tadoussac, I'll have to look up exactly where.



I think it has to do with the meeting between the fresh water from the Saguenay and the brackish waters of the St. Lawrence. I believe this enriches the water in some way, promoting growth of small invertebrates, which lead to a greater concentration of prey items for whales and seals.

Peter C.

Cheers Peter. Just the sort of gen I was after. If you could look up exactly where for Beluga views I'd be very grateful.

 

[Peter C.]

Cheers Peter. Just the sort of gen I was after. If you could look up exactly where for Beluga views I'd be very grateful.

Steve:

It took a while, but I managed to dig out all my old info. on Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park. The place I was referring to is called Baie Sainte-Marguerite; it is on the "east" (really, north) bank of the Saugenay, just off rte. 172. It's hard to judge how far inland you have to go from the map (because the road winds a bit), but it's maybe 20 km upsteam from the intersection of 172 & 138 (the main north shore road).

Peter

 

[Steve Babbs]

Thanks Peter. Much appreciated.

 

[François Doyen]

I've not be able to go there yet but I already planned it twice...

St-anne de Portneuf was a lot better for blue whale than the Tadoussac/Escoumin area. However I doubt the whale watching company still exist (they had a website with sightings which doesn't exist anymore).

Blue whale is also easier if you go in Gaspesie (Gaspé/percé) or in Mingan where you can go with the researcher for a 6-8 hour trip : http://www.rorqual.com/mics.php?key=7&lang=en

For whale watching in Tadoussac area I'ld choose one of the small company using zodiacs from Escoumins/Bergeronnes. A bit less crowded than Tadoussac and more chance of blue whale (however depending on where are the whales all the boats can end up at the same place...).

 

[Steve Babbs]

Cheers Francois

I think my plan is probably going to be:

Fly to Montreal
Stop at motel to break journey
Parc de la Gaspesie – reindeer, general birding/wildlife watching
Forillon National Park/Gaspe – whale trips, porcupines, bears general birding/wildlife watching - but I may use this company:
http://www.baleines-forillon.com/intro.aspx
The people you recommend looks good but - and call me a wimp - 8 hours on a small boat, which doesn't appear to have a toilet may be too much for me! And wife and kids are definitely a no no for that.
Parc du Bic – convinient break before ferry to northside/chill out/general wildlife watching
Les Escoumins– whale trip by boat, land-based whale watching
Back to Montreal

Cheers

Steve

 

[SB123]

Hi Steve,

I have a similar trip planned in June-July after the BirdLife World Congress in Ottawa (though too early for Blue Whale, unfortunately). We were planning to head up through Montreal and Quebec (wife and baby in tow, so need to build up some brownie points doing city stuff), going via this place near Montreal which appears to have a black bear stake-out in the evenings and beaver/otter/moose canoe trips in the mornings: http://www.cdit.qc.ca/absm/auberge/observe/observe.htm

Then heading up to Tadoussac for the belugas, trying trips from there and/or Bergeronnes or Les escoumins, plus land-based watching from Bai Ste Marguerite west of Tadoussac, or Cap de Bon Desir past Bergeronnes.This place not far to the west also claims to have bears and beavers: http://www.bbcanada.com/ferme5etoiles

Then we'll drive over to Gaspe and have a few days in Forillion National Park. You can do whale-watching trips from Perce or Grand-Grave. Sounds like there is a chance of White-beaked Dolphin but probably too early for White-sided.

Porcupine, bears & beaver are supposedly easy in Forillion. Near Cap-des-Rosiers there is supposed to be a parking lot called “Le Castor”, where a guide does a daily late afternoon talk about beavers, followed to a walk to the lake where a family of beavers lives that is used to people: "on most nights they see one or two animals". On the map I found a small lake west of the minor road that leads S off route 132 south of Cap des Riosiers - I suspect this may be it.

I'll try to post an update when I'm back.

Do you have any recent gen on Fishers at Parc Nacional du Bic?

Cheers

Stu

 

[François Doyen]

Just read a small trip report in French from a Friend. Some information :

-Parc de la Gaspégie : the best spot for Moose is the hide at Lac Paul in the evening/morning and beaver were active in late the afternoon along the track just before the lac des Américains

-Parc du Forillon : Cap des Rosiers is very good for whale and sea ducks. He saw : 2-3 blue, 6-7 fin, several and 2-3 humpback whale and 100 white-sided dolphin there. Cap Gaspé is very good too : migrant warbler, forest species and bald eagle. the "castor spot" is probably better in the early morning (less tourists). Moose also possible there and it's the best spot for porcupine.

He also so distant blues whales from the ferry Escoumins - Trois-pitsoles but has the best sighting from the boat between Percé and Ile de Bonaventure (The island was also good for migrant warbler)

Whale watching trip from Tadoussac was disappointing and he had better sightings from the coast Cap Bon Désir

 

[Steve Babbs]

Cheers guys. Mind occupied by illness, otters and wolves recently, but will go back to planning Canada shortly.

 

[Steve Babbs]

The decline in porcupines in the area has apparently been blamed on an increase in the number of fishers. Anyone have any thoughts of the best place to look for fisher, and what my chances are?

Cheers

 

[Mike Richardson]

The decline in porcupines in the area has apparently been blamed on an increase in the number of fishers. Anyone have any thoughts of the best place to look for fisher, and what my chances are?

Cheers

Jon Hall is checking out a Fisher site this weekend. Not sure how close it is to the area of Canada you're visiting but he might be able to give you a few tips when he gets back.