Trail Tools
- Scope (instructions)
- Stew pot (1 or 2-litre plastic container)
- Underwater viewer (instructions)
- Binoculars and camera (optional)
- Blue or gray clothing to wear
- Face paints or washable markers (black, blue and gray)
- Adventure Journal
The trail runs through the Cole Harbour Heritage Provincial Park. This is an easy walk along a hard-packed trail built on an abandoned railway. It offers spectacular views of the marsh. About 1 km down the main trail is an outhouse and picnic area. This is a great trail for biking as it extends for 6.5 km to the West Lawrencetown Road. Though not essential, it is preferable to do this trail at lower tides so you can reach further out onto the marsh flats without being in the water. Check the tide tables here.
This trail is accessible for wheelchairs and strollers as it follows a rail to trail cinder path. There are places where activities take place down short side trails and these will need to be adapted.
From Dartmouth, take Portland Street, which turns into Cole Harbour Road (Route 207), for 7 km and turn right on Bissett Road. It is shortly after the major intersection with Forest Hills Drive. Travel 3.2 km on Bissett Road to the third of the three trail parking lots on the left. There is a kiosk at the trailhead.
Directly before the kiosk at the trailhead, take the little, overgrown path on the right that opens into a small grassy clearing with a pine tree in it.
(The accessible option is to do this just off the main trail.)
Great blue herons have keen eyesight and can spot incredible things in a salt marsh. They’re always searching for food. Can you become a curious heron and discover some of the neat things in the marsh?11 Can you find heron food? If you are really clever, you’ll figure out a heron’s favourite food.
Herons are blue and gray with black feather plumes above their eyes. Put on the proper colours:
Their call is: “Quonk! Quonk! Quonk!” Try it.
Find the pine tree in the clearing. This special tree can help you change into a heron. Take turns kneeling before the tree and repeat these magic words:
“With heron legs I want to walk.
With heron eyes I’ll see.
With a heron voice instead of talk.
A great blue heron I’ll be.”
Do the heron pounce to find small neat creatures in the long grass:
Return to the main trail. Practice your flying skills. Flap your wings and “fly” 100 m up the trail and take cover in a path on the right behind the big boulder.
Try using your sharp heron eyes. They take big, slow steps and use their telescopic eyesight to find prey. Use your heron scope to help you find the things below. Take 50 big, slow steps up the trail and search for the first thing on the list. Take 50 more steps and search for the next thing, and so on.
Continue looking for these things as you fly further up the trail.
Continue 440 m while doing the scavenger hunt. Stop at the opening just past the start of the water on your right where you have a good view of the marsh to the right and can see the marsh on the left.
This is where the great blue heron lives. As an important marsh creature, make a big show strutting home:
Continue along the trail, walking next to the marsh for about 100 m. Take the first small grassy and gravelly trail down the bank onto the flats.
As a curious heron, check to see what the other birds are up to. Use your scope or binoculars. How many different birds can you see? Stop here to experience a salt marsh delicacy. It’s a hearty stew that gives the marsh its special smell. Take out your stew pot and follow this recipe (but watch out for poison ivy):
marsh stew recipe
Empty the stew for other creatures to enjoy when you’re finished. Take your stew pot with you.
Did you find a small periwinkle shell to add to your stew? Herons sometimes eat them. Look for one on the ground. Pretend to pounce on it and spear it with your beak. Good stuff!
Return to the trail. Walk about 80 m to the Rosemary’s Way path on the left. Take it to a little cove with a wooden bench.
Herons sometimes look for food in the water. Use your sharp eyes to search for neat things with your underwater viewer.
Draw one neat thing you saw in your Adventure Journal.
Continue along Rosemary Way, returning to the main trail. Walk 225 m and turn right onto a path at the kiosk just past the washrooms. Go down to the water’s edge just in front of the bench.
Can you hunt for food like a heron? Do some silent stalking. If you stand very still for a couple of minutes, creatures think you are a tree or a plant. They come closer so you can have a good look at them. Have everyone stand very still and silent for two minutes.
Did a creature come close while you were standing still? Sometimes herons freeze in different positions so their prey won’t see them. Try being heron statues:
Now search for real heron food at the water’s edge. Turn over a few rocks or look under some seaweed. Crouch down and look carefully for a nice plump crayfish (a mini lobster-like creature) or little worms. Make sure you put the rocks back just as you found them. Do the heron pounce and pretend to spear a crayfish with your beak. Mmm!
Return to the main trail. Walk 160 m to the first bridge, Bald Eagle Bridge, and stop on the other side.
Herons build their nests high up in trees out of sticks and dead plant material. These nests are like sculptures. Can you build a neat heron sculpture out of dead stuff along the trail?
This bridge is a good place to observe the marsh. Watch the swirling water as it flows under the bridge. Are there differences in the patterns on either side? Is the tide coming in or going out?
Herons build their nests in very tall trees. Use your scope to scan for a nesting site in a distant tree. Herons nest in colonies of more than 100 pairs. Could you find your eggs in such a large colony? Try this:
Now find your eggs in the dark: place all the eggs in a pile. Close your eyes and find yours by touch alone. Take turns and mix up the eggs each time.
Could you find your own egg this way?
Other herons and gulls will eat heron eggs. Hide your egg from the other herons.
Does the egg’s placement and colouring make a difference? That is one way birds hide their eggs from predators. Finish by making a little nest for your egg using dead seaweed. When you are finished, be sure to return your rock to where you found it.
Still hungry? The heron’s favourite food is often resting in the shallows below the bridge. Find the shallowest section under the bridge. Look for these creatures swimming at the edges of the rocks below the bridge on either side. Staying on the bridge, do the heron pounce and pretend to spear the mystery food with your beak. Gulp!
Stay at Canada Goose Bridge.
Have you figured out a heron’s favourite food? The answer is on the hidden plaque on something wooden made by people. Use the side of your pencil or crayon to make a rubbing of it in your Adventure Journal. Take a favourite picture of the marsh and post it if you choose.
The plaque symbol is:
Congratulations, you have been a very curious heron! Use your curiosity to explore other neat natural places. If you are feeling ambitious and energetic, the Cole Harbour Salt Marsh trail extends for 6.5 km!