July 22
We had another great breakfast at the hotel this morning. Greg tried the Blueberry Pancakes, and I had the Touton Sandwich.
Puffin & Whale Watch Tour https://www.obriensboattours.com/
We were picked up at 8:00 for the 4 hour (actually, he was
quite late) Puffin & Whale Watch Tour and drove along the Southern Shore to
visit the historic Irish outport community of Bay Bulls. We got checked in and boarded
the boat out to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve Bird Islands, home to
millions of Atlantic Puffins, Murres and Kittiwakes.
The Witless Bay reserve contains North America´s largest
Atlantic puffin colony. It is estimated that more than 260,000 pairs of
Atlantic Puffins nest there during the late spring and summer. The reserve also
hosts the world's second-largest colony of Leach's storm-petrels. More than
620,000 pairs of these birds come here to nest every year. Thousands of Black-legged
Kittiwakes and common murres arrive for the nesting season. The Reserve
consists of four islands: Gull Island, Green Island, Great Island, and Pee Pee
Island.
Witless Bay is second in the world with Iceland being the
largest. Westmann Isles of Iceland is the home to most of the Atlantic puffins in
the world with about 10 million individuals.
On the way out we saw an eagle and lots of puffins in the water and flying about so cute I dare you to watch them and not laugh with delight.
They gave the safety information, and we were enjoying the puffins in the water. Most people on the boat didn’t even notice them.
We came to Gull Island, with them nesting and it was just amazing seeing so many and all the other birds also nesting on the same island. They co-exist well together.
It was very hard to get great photos of them since they don’t sit still and neither does the boat. We did go by slowly and I had great views with the binoculars. We have seen Puffins before, but not this close and so many! We did see a few new birds here though. (Northern Gannet, Razorbill, Thick-billed Murres, Black-legged Kittiwakes)
All too soon (for us anyway) we were pulling away to search for Humpback Whales. We have been fortunate in that we have seen quite a lot of them and even saw them bubble-net feeding in Alaska and Antarctica. In Panama we snorkeled close enough to hear them sing underwater. So, we weren’t as disappointed as those on the boat that hadn’t seen them as there none to be found today.
We did however have a great experience with a Minke whale that played with the bow of the boat like a dolphin. The water was so crystal clear that you could see the entire whale even when it was under water. It did come up out of the water quite a few times. There were also some huge jellyfish that were easy to see under water.
One guy got “screeched in” on the boat. They did it a bit differently as instead of kissing the cod, they had a stuffed Puffin and he had to kiss its “arse”.
We got back on land and waited for our ride back to St, John’s. He was bringing people for the next boat out and was very late. They were holding the boat for them. We had a tight window to grab lunch today, so him being late cut into our time. The office wasn’t pleased with him either since they were holding the boat for his passengers. He said traffic was backed up since the police was arresting a shoplifter.
Due photo quantity I split the day into 2 parts. Next up the city tour.
For larger photos:
St. John's Newfoundland - Day 2 AM -
Obrien's Whale & Puffins Tour https://photos.app.goo.gl/6EDo9DC7jpkrWg4j8
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