On the water

We are here.  In Newfoundland.  Another of those places we've always wanted to see.  The travel was, well, travel.  What  can I say?  Hurry up and wait at airports.  Flights delayed for reasons that are not mechanical and you have to try and empathize with the person who is probably totally aware that helping them on and off has created echo delays down the chain of flights.  We made our connection with minues to spare.  And we landed without incident after our second try through the fog.  Mercifully, I wasn't near a window to see the trees wa-ay too close on that first practice landing.

After a red-eye flight and a  white-knuckle landing, we were ready for St John's.  Arriving at the motel early in the morning, we were hoping to just stow the bags.  But the kind manager told us the room was ready- just go on up and relax.  Almost didn't get out of there.  A shower and a bit of complimentary breakfast went over a treat, though.

Into the  car, dig out the maps and we're on our way to Bay Bulls to take a boat tour to see the birds.  The fog lifted - mostly.  But, if I though we were having a disappointing June...huh!  Nothing like here.  Brr...it's cold.  I am almost all bundled up.  Don't have my mitts on yet but I have two jackets both with hoods.

Here we go.

Puffins are a bird very high on my wish  list.  In fact, I would have been very unamused to not see any while I'm here.  They were definitely around.  Lots of the.  Here are the married quarters.  Watching over the nests.  Those would be the holes in the grass.

The bachelors.

They fly the way penguins swim.  Flapping those stubby wings really, really fast.   They really shouldn't be able to fly at all.  And the only way they can take off is on the water.  So, they launch themselves from the nest, over the edge and kind of fall, fly and hit the water flapping.

There were lots and lots of birds.  Puffins, murres, gulls, a fulmar, an eagle - even some crows. The sky was absolutely alive with birds, wheeling and crying.  Birds were diving, flapping or just resting on the water. The eagle spooked a whole flock of nesting murre who promptly took off in one fell swoop, curved a long  black tail  and then back to their abandoned nests before the gulls noticed they were gone.  Definitely a precarious existence.  Yet,  they flourish.  There is something to be said for numbers.

Back to land.

Our guide for the day, a young man with a marvellous tenor voice treated us to song a couple of times.  As well as stand-up comedy.  I think that it's easy to mock the puffins, though.  They are clowns.  From the time I heard about this boat trip I'd been singing this song in my head.  Not surprisingly, it  was one of the tunes we were favored to hear.  (Sorry, I  can't seem to link up with Great Big Sea's "Excursion Around the Bay". Do go have a listen on Youtube).    I\ll leave you today with the same tune in your head.