PUFFINS! ( and gannetts, and common mures, and whales, oh my!)

Joe put the super-duper lens to good use today!













We drove south of St John's to Bay Bulls, so that we could take a boat to the Witless Island sanctuary, home to 1.5 million sea birds, 360,000 of which are puffins (PUFFINS!!!!).  We got on  the delightfull Gatheralls tour, with great staff, who entertained us with songs and stories as well as with their knowledge of the local fauna.

We got to admire the rugged coast while on the look-out for whales.

 We were not disappointed.  A few minkes swam right by, and then a humpback came very near, and then displayed its fluke for us to admire:  A good start of the day indeed.

 But this was all about puffins:  Witless island is home to the largest breading colony in North America, and they were all over:  Swimming around the boat,

 trying to take off.  Tthey are very bad flyers - it takes them forever to take off and they have to beat their wings very fast of they just drop.  In fact, about 1/2 the time, take off is aborted, they drop back in the water and have to start again....  looks pretty inefficient, but it's enjoyable to watch.

On the island, we got to see their breeding nests:  they burrow in the ground, making the entire island looked pocked-marked.  The ones who are not busy fishing sit by the edge of their hole, looking pretty.  They are MUCH smaller than I thought.  Only 6 to 8  inches tall, which makes them even more adorable.  Joe, of course took hundreds of pictures, so this is just a very small sampler.

There are many other type of birds on the island - and I feel they do not get the notice they deserve:  Yes, puffins are adorable with their orange beak and all that, but the others were cool too!  I particularly liked the common murres - another type of auk (same family as the puffin),  they are larger and gather on the edge of the cliffs in large numbers.  To me, they resemble penguins, but there is no relation.

 The razorbill auk is very cool too. 
And pretty gulls called "black-legged Kittiwakes" were nesting all over the cliffs









 as was the predatory black backed seagull (it eats puffins!!!!!!) - (below)

  They were also majestic gannets, and a few eagles (but since we have these back home, I won't post a picture).

At the end of the ride, we got "screeched-in" - which mean we were declared honorary Newfoundlanders (because there are only two type of people in the word, Newfoundlanders, and those who wish they were.....).  The "ceremony" involves getting your feet wet, saying something in the local slang, and drinking one shot of Newfounland rum "Screech" directly poured into your mouth....  it was very silly and fun.

 After this exciting boat ride, we continued south along the coast of the Avalon peninsula, to Ferryland and it's pretty lighthouse.

 Along the road, it was nice to see some wind turbines- if there was ever a place that can use wind to make electricity, it has to be Newfoundland!

As we continued ever south, the landscape changed dramatically, and became very barren.  By the time we made it to the very south, at Cape Race (from the Portuguese raso- meaning bare), it was a wind blown almost tundra-like landscape.  Very grand and beautiful in it's own way, but hard to imagine that it sustained a largish community for several centuries -

 because the lighthouse is so critical to east coast ship traffic.  Although the light house is still manned (one of very few), technology is such that very few people are needed, and the community has now died down. 

This was a long day and we were tired and dirty when we made it back to St John's- so we had quite good Chinese take out in the room.  Tomorrow- we go west!