Puffins, Puffins, Puffins

Puffings by Bud Vincent

My daughters just love puffins – and really, who doesn’t? In fact, I know of my daughters goes on whale watches in Newfoundland, more to watch these little guys struggling to take off and fly so cutely overhead, then she does to see the whales.

So puffin-watching is quite popular in Newfoundland, and so is puffin photography. Every gift shop in downtown St. John’s sells postcards and posters adorned with the little guys. But I have to say (and I’m not biased!) that these pictures, from good friend and great photographer Bud Vincent, are some of the best I’ve seen. Enjoy!
Puffings by Bud Vincent

Gull Appreciation Day

Gulls are not the most beloved of birds, and in the city after they’ve gone through your trash creating a big mess, I’ve been known to curse them, too. But when you’re out the water with them (like I am as much as possible in my Boston schooner, the A Wake at Last), and you get to see them soaring over the waves, wings outstretched, you really start to build an appreciation for their own inherent glory. And unlike a lot of the seasonal birds that we all love to love (hey, we even named our Heart’s Delight cottages after some of them), gulls tough it out with us, summer and winter, through all weather, sometimes solitary, sometimes in groups, always dancing on the wind and playing in the waves. They’re tough, just like Newfoundlanders!

A gull takes a dip in the Atlantic Ocean at our Newfoundland cottage rentals, cabins for rent on the water, beach front, near St. John’s