Thoughts From a "Lost Canadian" About Sable Island National Park Reserve

Today I'm writing about Sable Island National Park Reserve - a very unique National Park Reserve in Canada which you have to have advance permission from Parks Canada to be able to visit - and can only reach it by plane or boat . . .

• Sable Island National Park Reserve is famous for its hundreds of wild horses. The island hosts between 150 and 500 wild horses. They have thick, woolly, shaggy coats, often brown, and stocky bodies. Today’s population descended from horses introduced to the island in the 1700s.
• It has the world's largest grey seal colony with tens of thousands of grey seals (the world's largest breeding colony).
• Sable Island National Park Reserve is the only nesting ground for the rare Ipswich Sparrow.
• Due to its isolated position, unpredictable currents, and the way the sandbar blends with the ocean, the area is historically known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic". Over 350 shipwrecks have been recorded off its shores since the 1800s.
• It is a 42-kilometer-long strip of shifting sand located on the edge of the Continental Shelf in the Atlantic Ocean with no native trees, but is covered in marram grass, heath-type vegetation, delicate orchids, and freshwater wetland patches.
• Sable Island is an extremely isolated island located at the edge of the Continental Shelf in the Atlantic Ocean, 290 km southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Visitors are welcomed in January and February and from June to October.
• Sable Island’s climate is tempered by the ocean and is usually milder than mainland Nova Scotia. Located in the North Atlantic, Sable Island is the windiest place in Nova Scotia, and is subject to frequent fog. 
• There are five species of bees found at Sable Island National Park Reserve, including two species of sweat bee: the Sable Island Sweat Bee and the Nova Scotia Sweat Bee. The Sable Island Sweat Bee (Lasioglossum sabelnse) is endemic to Sable Island, which means it is found nowhere else in the world.
• Sable is home to at least six invertebrate species found only on the island; in particular, there are several species of butterflies and moths which may be sufficiently different from mainland populations, meaning they could be classified as subspecies.
• The Atlantic walrus once inhabited and likely bred on Sable Island. However, by the late 1800s, uncontrolled harvesting led to the species' disappearance from the island and surrounding waters. Today, walrus skeletal remains (tusks, skulls, and lower jaws) can still be found in the shifting sands on Sable Island.

If you have the opportunity to visit Sable Island National Park Reserve, it is certain to be something you will never forget! You will find more information about this amazing place at the following link.