Monday, June 2, 2008

One More Bird Shot from Saturday

On Sunday, we talked to a man the the interpretive center for the national park. He helped us sort out what we had seen on Saturday. I had had my binoculars along, but was too excited about taking pictures to get them out. In this photos of the birds on the cliffs, there are gannets and little black and white birds that look like miniature penguins. (You might have to click on the picture to see the larger version.) Most of the those are Common Murres. There might have been a few Razonbills among them. We did not see any Puffins. We learned that there are only a few pairs on Bonaventure. They nest in burrows or deep crevices and must be well down the cliffs to avoid being prey for foxes. We learned that there was ice in 1990 which allowed foxes to cross over and there are now 4 in residence. A Gannet can fight off a fox with its beak but a puffin cannot.
We also saw lots of Black Guillemots. And Great Black-Backed Gulls. We were told that we would have seen Black-Legged Kittiwakes, but they just got mixed up with the gulls for us. Everywhere, we have seen cormorants.

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