A Third Newfoundland Post

We headed east, reluctantly leaving the gorgeous west coast…

… but soon got to marvel at the birches (that we hadn’t been seeing because the moose eat all the seedlings) interspersed with the firs -

We were headed for one of the peninsulas that constitute the northern coast, and stayed in the town of Bonavista -

The big draw for me was the Atlantic Puffin nesting site near here -

I first visited early in the morning, hoping for good light and large numbers of birds…

… but was a little disappointed in my pictures as I reviewed them. The puffins are on an offshore island, and that picture above was taken with my 400m zoom lens and then enlarged on my computer. However, the morning light was nice on the rocky coast -

The root cellars nearby were interesting…

… and one even gave me a beautiful fox sighting -

Also, on the way back into town, the resident iceberg showed off nicely -

So I visited the puffins again around noon…

… with much better light…

… and just as many birds on shore -

Their small size (only about 8 inches tall) was surprising…

… and notable in contrast to the Herring Gull, at twice their height and weight! (You can appreciate this better if you enlarge the picture above.)

We went on a hike to nearby Spillar’s Cove in the afternoon…

… getting to see some cool sea stacks…

…and wandering along the seaside cliffs -

This was a unique plant we found -

Roseroot Stonecrop

The “Dungeon” made a nice detour -

(did you happen to notice the iceberg out to sea that photobombed the picture - in the left upper corner?)

I’ll need one more post to finish showing you why we really enjoyed our time on Newfoundland. As is common, I’ll close with sunset -

Iceberg on the left!