Boothbay Harbor, ME
What a lovely area this is.
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| Ram Island Light |
We have taken time here to slow down. Apart from walking around the town, having a beer at the local pub looking out on the water, we took a boat ride out in the harbor to see the puffins at Eastern Egg Rock. All the puffins left here and they decided in the late 70's to try and encourage them back. They put a number of mating birds here, left some wooden replicas to make it look like there were a large colony here. It took a number of years before the first chicks were born and now they have 150 mating pairs. It was called Project Puffin and is the first restored Pacific Puffin colony.
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| Looking back into the harbour |
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| Burnt Island Light |
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| Laughing Gull |
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| Cuckolds Light |
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| Atlantic Puffin |
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| The first time we have seen a group of puffins |
We couldn't go on the island and shooting these tiny flying footballs from a moving base so far away from them was very difficult. They fly at 40 miles an hour. I had a 100-400mm with a cropped sensor so could get to 640mm, the combo we bought for me to shoot wildlife from now on. Lindsay had his full frame with the f/2.8 300mm, which means he could only get half as far as me. He got some good shots but the birds are so small it just wasn't worth keeping any of the pictures. We are really pleased with the the quality of the pictures I got. For those that are interested, it's the new Canon 7D MkII and the new 100-400 MkII.
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| Bald Eagle chicks |
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| Cray Pots |
The buoys have a colour on the top of them to help identify which cray pot belongs to whom. Crayfish is big business here. They have put cameras on the cray pots and have found that the crays go in and out of the pots, the cray that is there when it's brought up just got unlucky to be found with it's finger in the honey pot. The pots have two sections, the kitchen and parlour. The kitchen as you can guess is where the bait is, the parlour is where they have a nap after eating. If they go in and out, I'm not sure whether they ever go into the parlour. They are very territorial and fight off other crays who go near "their pot".
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| Fisherman pulling up his pots |
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| Perfect views |
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| Boothbay Harbor |
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| Early morning before breakfast |
Campground
Hey Guys, I went to your post on the INTERNET after reading it via email so I could make a comment. I did not find a place for a comment in the email version (thought I did that before---do I drink a lot when I do email?). I chose "Comment as: Google Account." We don't have puffins in Washington, but did have a wonderful four days around July 4th at the family cabin at Bell's Beach on Whidbey Island, WA (Do Google maps---we were between Langley and Coopville. Just switch crayfish traps for crab traps, change the buoys from yellow to white/red and you get the picture! Caught nine in two days---tasty!
ReplyDeleteYay, glad you finally worked it out. Yes, I've heard about Whidbey Island, sounds a perfect place to spend some summer days
ReplyDeleteThe Maritimes are most definitely on our list! First we need to pry ourselves away from our summers on Lopez Island, though. There are many similarities, it appears. So wonderful that you were able to photograph puffins—we've seen them here occasionally, but only very, very far away.
ReplyDeleteThe puffins were a really long way away. Lindsay had a 300mm and we deleted all his as they were just specs. I was using a 400mm with a cropped sensor, which made it 640mm and I still had to crop them. It is lovely up here but Lopez Island, equally as nice but sounds quicker to get to if you are over on the West coast
ReplyDeleteJane some lovely photo’s of the birds....great that you are having such a nice time. Enjoy.
ReplyDeletethank you David, they were quite hard to get with a moving boat
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