Piopolis, Quebec

After a morning bird walk, the caravan pulled out one-by-one to get to the next destination which was Piopolis, Quebec. We departed only to stop and wait a few miles down the road at the Canadian border crossing. Well, that was easy enough, the border guard was quite funny. 

The trip took us on highways, country roads, and some gravel roads. The drive was up and down huge hills anywhere from 6% to 16% grades. Precious, (for those reading for the first time is my truck) had no problems. Following the directions to the word, Susan and I were maybe 1 of 3 vehicles that did not get lost. Eventually all arrived safe and sound. Setting up was easy but cleaning up was a little more time consuming. The rough roads were not so nice to the garage area in our rig. That’s okay now we know what we have to do to get ready for the 500 kms of dirt and gravel roads in Labrador.

Piopolis is a small village in eastern Quebec with a population of approximately 350 people. The municipality was founded in 1871 by Papal Zouaves which was an infantry force formed in defense of the papal states.

Our campsites overlooked the beautiful shores of Lac Megantic where we could see common loons swimming.

Our group facing the water

Lac Megantic...this is where we saw the loons

The next morning we were up at 2:30 am driving to a place in search of the evasive Bicknell's Thrush. We of course arrived in the dark but soon were delighted with a gorgeous sunrise.

Sunrise coming up over the mountains

Hearing several Bicknell's Thrushes was fantastic but seeing one proved to be a little more difficult. After a few hours of no visuals we moved to a different location and within minutes one appeared on top of a tree. Not having my big lens with me I was not able to get a good shot, so no pic sorry. However, as we were driving down the hill to explore another trail I spotted a porcupine eating away in the top of a tree.

Porcupine eating breakfast

Joey, Chris, & Mike looking for birds

Yes, that white stuff is snow

A white trillium

Fiddleheads

Shelf Fungus

? who made these holes

As we were finishing up our morning walk we came across the above tree with lots of holes in it. The holes were about 2- 3 feet of the ground. Bert our bird expert indicated it was the result of a Pileated Woodpecker. How cool is that.

Even though we got up early and most of us are tired it was a wonderfully successful day for birding and nature in general.