Third time lucky

Englishtown, Canada

Twice before on trips to Atlantic Canada I’ve tried to go on excursions to see Atlantic Puffins. Once was on a trip to St. John’s, NFLD and the other was on Grand Manan Island in SW New Brunswick. Both times I was scuttled by poor weather.

The best opportunity to get up close and personal with these cuties is at Grand Manan where you are actually able to get off the tour boat onto a small island where they come once a year to nest, and from blinds and in a very controlled environment you can get within feet of them. I was on the list for 3 days in a row and wasn’t able to get out on any of those days due to heavy swells.

However, today, just outside of Saint Ann’s Bay, off the coast of Cape Breton Island, I was finally able to see these adorable sea birds in person. I went with Donalda’s Tours departing from the government wharf at Englishtown. Donalda and her husband have been lobster fishers for 30+ years and 15 or so years ago they started doing these bird island tours as well. Their typical day starts with a 3:10 am alarm to get out to check on their lobster traps, re-bait them, get the catch back to the wharf and weighed and sorted as per their outstanding orders. All this before their first puffin run at 10:30 am. And our 1:30 tour came in at 4:30p. That is their routine 6 days out of 7 for the two months of lobster season. Not for the faint hearted.

As you’ll see from the pictures, even using a 175mm telephoto lens, you can just barely make out the markings of the puffins. We couldn’t get too close to the islands, both because of conservation efforts and because of the lobster pots around the islands. If you google Atlantic Puffins you’ll see why I am so enamoured by these little guys.

Of course we saw many more sea birds than just puffins, as well as gray seals, eagles and just as we were coming back we got the added bonus of seeing a mink whale. I didn’t get any pictures as it was totally unexpected.

Also unexpected was the eagle picking up a fish about 5 feet from my window. I managed to get a picture of it on my iPhone because I was checking my emails as we were headed back to the harbour. Someone alerted us to the eagle and so I looked up in time to see it coming and got the picture. In the right place at the right time.

After the tour out to the bird islands, I stopped in Baddeck for dinner at the Bell-Buoy Restaurant overlooking the Baddeck harbour. Attached is a video of the view from my seat and the entertainment provided all evening. Music is such a huge part of the Cape Breton culture.

All in all, another excellent Cape Breton day.

I’m starting to understand why the tourism folks current catch phrase is “Your heart will never leave.”

PS I’m so glad to hear from so many of you who are remembering their trips to this part of the world and re-living it through my blog. If you’ve been here or to Prince Edward Island and have suggestions for me to check out something you did and enjoyed, please, please let me know. I have no set agenda and happy to receive advice!