Day 29- July 25 Alexander Graham Bell and Puffins in Nova Scotia

Day 29- July 25   Alexander Graham Bell and Puffins in Nova Scotia

Lazy morning for everyone as we weren't leaving this campsite today.  Darby finally had enough time to make pancakes this morning.  Rainy this morning and humid as we finally decided on two different things to do today.  Go to Alexander Graham Bell National site and take in a puffin tour. 


The national site was in Baddeck, the birthplace of aviation.  Alexander Bell was a very smart and innovative man.  He not only invented the phone but helped the hearing impaired to communicate including Helen Keller.  He helped start aviation in Canada and assisted with the first plane to fly in Canada, the Silver Dart on Feb. 23, 1909.  Mr. Bell also invented the HD3, world's fastest boat at 76 mph. using hydrofoil.

No black berry or IPhone here

She's had practice in the outhouse at the cabin!

Silver Dart

The girls completed their first Explorer booklet by doing activities and filing in answers in their book.  They had fun building tetrahedrons to make a kite and dialling an old rotary phone!!  They both received a certificate and dog tag for their efforts.

After lunch we drove out to Englishtown at St. Anne's Harbour for Donelda's Puffin Boat Tour.  We almost had the whole 45 foot boat to ourselves, only 2 other guests were on the 3 hour tour.  We headed out of St. Anne's Bay into the Cabot Strait to bird island.  On the say out we saw bald eagles that would swoop down to pick up the frozen fish our guide threw out to them.  It was so cool watching them from close range.

All our bring-um-nears ready to go

Their accuracy is amazing to catch the fish!



Grey Seals on the rocks, sounds like a new drink!

When we got to the island we saw a variety of birds and even grey seals.  We saw puffins, 2 types of cormorant, great blue herons, razor bills, and a variety of different species of seagulls.


We see the birds



Great Blue Heron

Eagle number 44

The puffins were very small at about 6 inches tall with bright orange feet and colorful bills.  They flap very fast like a hummingbird and nest in burrows high along the cliffs laying only one egg.  They are a sea bird most of their life and only come to land to nest.  As they bob up and down in the water they eat small fish. 

Bobbing in the water

Puffins outside their burrows

We saw 53 eagles, according to Hailey, including immature eagles, which eat puffins.  The razor bill, another bird we saw,  has a white belly and waddles like a penguin.  They are about the same size as puffins and nest high in the cliffs as well. 

Razor Bill in the Atlantic

It was a fantastic tour circling the islands, we were glad we had binoculars but didn't need them the entire time as we got so close to bird island.  It was a fairly calm voyage today and the sun came out as well.  After  we got back we shopped at their little puffin shack after, they had everything puffin you could think of, and yes we bought a few items!  We saw 2 foxes along the road on our way back to our campsite.