![machias seal island puffin tours machias seal island puffin tours](http://www.birdingpictures.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Atlantic-Puffin_5840.jpg)
If you looked closely at the video you will have noticed the birds are not Puffins but surprisingly were Arctic Terns.
![machias seal island puffin tours machias seal island puffin tours](https://i0.wp.com/www.ericsturgeon.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Puffins-16x9-20190602-111053.jpg)
This video follows our brief walk to the lighthouse and you will see and hear some birds flying overhead. They have surprising versatility and the unique perspective they provide often results in compelling images.Īfter the fifteen excited birders and photographers were successfully shuttled from The Day’s Catch to the shore we were escorted by the lighthouse keeper to a staging area where the practices and procedures were explained to us. If you have never used a fisheye lens I would highly recommend getting one. The Day’s Catch, although spending most of its time fishing for lobster, became the perfect boat for the ninety minute trip to Machias Seal Island from Grand Manan, with plenty of room for the 15 passengers on board as seen by these next two images taken with the Fuji X-E2 and 8mm Samyang fisheye lens. Here is Deb with the Little Catch in tow behind her. Below are our rides for the day, the Day’s Catch and the Little Catch.ĭue to rough seas and primitive docking facilities successful landing on the island occurs about 60% of the time so although it was very foggy we were thrilled to be able to set foot on the island. As there are only minimal landing facilities on Machias Seal Island, the Day’s Catch tows a small tender, The Little Catch, which shuttles people from the big boat to the rocky shore of the island. Our boat, The Day’s Catch, is a lobster fishing boat that Captain Wilcox converts for taking bird watchers and photographers to Machias Seal Island during the Puffin nesting season in July. Deb & I stayed for a couple of nights at The Inn at Whale Cove Cottages and it was the perfect spot.Īrriving at the Sea Watch Tours dock in Seal Cove we met Captain Peter Wilcox, who owns Sea Watch Tours, and his First Mate Durlan Ingersoll. Grand Manan Island by itself is a destination location for anyone wishing to experience maritime life and cuisine at its finest. Bold Coast Charter Company departs from Cutler Maine and Sea Watch Tours, with whom Deb & I went with, operates from Seal Cove on Grand Manan Island in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Only two charter companies have permission to deliver people to Machias Seal Island. There has been a Canadian lighthouse keeper on the island almost continually since the first lighthouse was built in 1832. Access to the island during nesting season is restricted to fifteen people at a time who are allowed on the island for a two hour period, most of which is spent in one of four blinds to which you are escorted by the lighthouse keeper who is the only resident of the island. Machias Seal Island is a small island located in the Lower Bay of Fundy about 12 miles south west of Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick and 10 miles south east of Cutler Maine.
![machias seal island puffin tours machias seal island puffin tours](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e3/53/27/e353277ae60a0803519a387fc19c551f.jpg)
While on the island we also had the privilege of seeing Arctic Terns, Common Murres and Razorbills. This past summer Deb & I ticked an item off the bucket list by travelling to Machias Seal Island to observe and photograph some of the 5,000 pairs of Atlantic Puffins that return to the island every summer to nest.