Thursday, June 19, 2008

Puffins!

We took the most incredible boat trip yesterday. We left Cutler Harbor in the fog aboard the Barbara Frost and headed out to sea 9 miles to Machias Seal Island. The island is being claimed by both the US and Canada, but the sweet little atlantic puffins, the razorbills, and the common murre's that call it home in the summer months don't care who owns it as long as they can stay long enough to raise their young. Which is usually from now till the middle of August. We've taken boat trips to see the puffins before, but this one was different in that we could actually get into a blind on the island and see them 2 feet away!!! I'm not a birder like my friend Loel is, but this was exciting!!! And as we talked about over a glass of wine at the end of the day, it's nice to have friends who have different passions and will draw you into their world. They've done their share of art galleries with me and mostly enjoyed it, but at the least endured it. As long time friends will.

This photo was taken on the main street in Lubec, where the sun rises first in the country. Well, maybe Eastport makes that claim, but this is a close second. The lupine are at their peak and just beautiful. One of my favorite wildflowers for sure.

Lupine
Preening
This little guy settled right down to check us out!

3 comments:

Chessie Johnson said...

More photos of Campobello Island & Lubec:

http://sunriseoncampobello.com
http://campobelloislandclub.com

West Quoddy Head Light is where the sun rises first in the US, if you do not count the part of Alaska across the date line. Lubec is the easternmost town and Eastport is the easternmost city.

a Lubecker

Del said...

What a lovely comment on friendship. I am a birder and my non-birding friends are quite tolerant most of the time. Nice to have friends that share. Thanks from a regular reader of you blog.
Del in SCalifornia

Rhonda said...

Great post. When I taught 4th grd. Science, we often studied birds and puffins were one of our favorites. It is really impossible to describe the colorings of this cute guys and since I live in Texas, is was impossible to get near one.
Thanks for sharing them.