Cape Spear and Puffins Galore
Sunday, we headed out of St. John's again. We drove south to Cape Spear which is a national historic site. The Cape Spear Lighthouse is perched on a rugged cliff, at North America’s most easterly point. It is the oldest surviving lighthouse in the province, a National Historic Site, and an iconic symbol of Newfoundland and Labrador's marine history. If you stand here with your back to the sea, the entire population of North America stretches out in front of you. If you face the sea, the next point of landfall is Ireland. I had read somewhere, on the NL Tourist site I think, that the name Spear comes from the French word, espoir, meaning hope That seemed to make sense to me.
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| The new lighthouse |
After we walked up to the lighthouse and visited the gift shop, we continued heading south to Bays Bull where we had booked a whale and puffin watching boat tour. While we had booked with Gatherall’s, one of the two tour companies here, our tour was actually run by O’Brien’s, the competitor. It turned out, given the Covid situation, the two companies have decided to partner and share the current customer base. That seemed so Canadian! So, we had an O’Brien crew. The tour was 2 hours leaving from Bays Bull not far from Witless Bay and it toured around Gull Island which is one of the four islands comprising the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. The others are Great Island, Green Island and Pee Pee Island. Gosh, there are some interesting names here! When I asked about the name of Bay Bulls – not understanding why it wouldn’t be called Bull’s Bay – I was told there was a bird around here called a Bully or Bullie so it became Bays Bull after the bird. Even after that explanation, I wasn’t sure it made sense. Perhaps, it is just a “Newfie” thing! While not unexpectedly, we saw no whales, which weren’t a priority for either of us anyway, we saw hundreds, possibly thousands of puffins and zillions of other seabirds. The crew doing the commentary and one-on-one were happy to answer questions and were very informative. There was also a lot of information about how the geology here is very unique and similar only to it around the Mediterranean. It was related to the shifting of two plates in the earth's surface millions of years ago - I'd have to do some research - okay, a lot of research - to explain it in more detail here! You can see from the photos below how interesting it looks.
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| From the Internet |
Puffins are so cute and almost comical. We were told they flap their wings 200 times a minute when they are flying and they eat twice their body weight each day (I should be so lucky!). Information from Wikipedia indicates: the Atlantic puffin has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches and white underparts. Its broad, boldly marked red and black beak and orange legs contrast with its plumage. It molts while at sea in the winter and some of the bright-coloured facial characteristics are lost, with color returning again during the spring. The external appearance of the adult male and female are identical, though the male is usually slightly larger. The juvenile has similar plumage, but its cheek patches are dark grey. Spending the autumn and winter in the open ocean of the cold northern seas, the Atlantic puffin returns to coastal areas at the start of the breeding season in late spring. It nests in cliff-top colonies, digging a burrow in which a single white egg is laid. The chick mostly feeds on whole fish and grows rapidly. After about 6 weeks, it is fully fledged and makes its way at night to the sea. It swims away from the shore and does not return to land for several years. We were told on the tour that the puffin returns after about 5 years when it reaches maturity and starts looking for a mate. They mate for life – but they are actually only together for 5 months of the year as the rest of the time they are at sea and have little contact with their mate. At maturity, the puffin tends to return to the burrow where it was born. Amazing! You can tell in the video below which birds are the puffins because they are the ones with their wings flapping like crazy!
Below are two photos my sister took of the puffins:
Colonies are mostly on islands with no terrestrial predators but adult birds and newly fledged chicks are at risk of attacks from the air by gulls and skuas. Skaus are aggressive seabirds and are sometimes referred to as “avian pirates”. The name is well earned as they steal much of their food from terns, puffins, and other birds that are carrying fish or other prizes back to their nests and young.
We were also told about other seabirds inhabiting the area including murres (which are black and white and look a bit like penguins), kittiwakes, gannets, and the largest of the seagull species called the great black-backed gull or as they are called here, saddlebacks. Its wing-span is about 5 feet (1.6 m.). They are particularly aggressive and can eat up to 4 puffins a days. Some of the people on the boat saw one actually catch a puffin. Thankfully, I missed seeing that!
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| Gull Island |
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| Colony of mostly murres |
The tour was really quite good although the sea was a bit rough for people not used to that sort of thing. We were okay; however, several of the children got sick and a number of the adults also headed downstairs. Once we reached the calmer waters of Bays Bull, the crew held a “screech in” ceremony for people who wanted to participate. The difference between this one and ours was mainly the cost although other important differences were that we got a Screech shot glass, some fried bologna, a long explanation of the history, etc. Further, ours was a longer event and more entertaining – but they did get a yellow seafarer hat! That was easy to solve as we purchased one in the souvenir shop when we were back on land. What a fun experience!
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