Donelda’s Puffin Boat Tour

   

   Donelda didn’t make money the first four years of her tour boat operating, her business languished until she changed its name from St. Ann’s Bay tours to Puffin tours. She told us her whole life story on our boat tour. It was a 40 minutes to the puffin island so we heard it all, she has lived a full life.

   On the way out to the island she threw fish into the water. Bald Eagles swooped out of the sky and got them. This would be frowned upon on the west coast, it’s a different world out here! I was awestruck by it's powerful wings and large talons.

  Once we got to the island we saw all kinds of birds (listed below), four life listers for me! The puffins were not in a big crowds but were out fishing. Donelda warned us about making noise, she told us about a girl who screamed, and nary a puffin was seen. Then Donelda proceeded to get on the boat roof and start shouting: “Puffin in flight!” , "Puffin under!" and the incomprehensible “Puffin hatch side!”. We were all swiveling our heads this way and that. Charlie, Elsa and I were fighting over the good binoculars the whole time. I managed to get a good look at the puffins anyway, what an attractive bird!, with their colourful beak and round bodies. Their babies are called “pufflings” which is so cute and accurate.

Best picture of a Puffin, taken by Amber with her great zoom lens.

   On the way back Charlie did an amazing thing. He walked to the front of the boat and went in the bathroom! I was like "What?! There's a toilet!" As we boated back from the island I was fairly miserable, willing the boat to hurry back to shore, regretting the coffee I had drank. This was coming into the third hour on the boat. Thanks goes to Charlie, who drank a lot of tea that morning. 

   After that I settled in for more of Donelda's story of triumph over tragedy - the loss of her husband due to melanoma and then finding a captain, who lives on her property in a trailer. She has refused to quit and has been going on thirty years. Her story made me feel better about buying a severely overpriced puffin stuffy from the shack gift shop. 

Puffin showing off it's cuddly physique

Alexander Graham Bell museum

 Why don’t we shorten his name to “AG Bell”? It’s always said fully - Alexander Graham Bell. It's quite a mouthful. Or how about just "Al".

 Al’s wife was deaf, he met her during his work with the hearing impaired. Other than the telephone though, his inventions seemed a bit fanciful and naive. Al dabbled in everything: flight, infant care, sheep genetics, children's toys. Is that what happens when you get lots of money from a patent? You get to do whatever strikes your fancy, it must be nice.

The museum is a National Park

 For lunch we went to Rose's Smash Burger. I had hit a junk food wall however. No more! I had a salad which was a curious mix of lettuce, pickled green olives and parmesan cheese. It's like they have heard about this "salad" thing tourists are clamouring for and they made an attempt. It wasn't too bad actually.

Campsite on the beach

   After a lot of waffling and considering all the variables we decided to camp right on the beach. I was so sick of all the rich food, I wanted some regular food. While we drove around thinking about where we wanted to stay, I must have said the words “Bean Salad” about 200 times. Even so the call of salt and fat is so strong that Josh got some seafood chowder. 

    I made the bean salad at the campsite and thankfully hunkered down in a chair and ate it while watching the waves. The seafood chowder was terrible.

    We had a great evening chatting by the propane fire until the wind picked up, a variable we hadn’t considered. Josh was up on the roof and didn’t have the best sleep with all the flapping tent sounds.

Zoom into Elsa's hair to see how windy it was

Elsa Life List bird count: 132 !

Puffin tour birds 

Northern Gannett 

Bald Eagle

Great Blue Heron

Double crested Cormorant 

Greater Cormorant 

Herring Gull

Black Guillemot 

Great Black-backed gull

Atlantic Puffin

Ruddy Turnstone