Introducing the Cast

I’ve managed (in between periods of slumber in my chair) to go through some of the photos I took on Friday.

We did see a few mammals as evidenced by the seal looking very impressed with us in that first image. Mostly, though, it was about the birds.

So here’s a brief introduction to the assortment of characters we met.

This young Razorbill is a handsome example of these members of the Auk family. Like their Puffin cousins they only come to land for breeding purposes. They choose one partner for life and lay one egg each year.

For some reason I wanted to give them each a pair of glasses.

There must be photos of Arctic Terns in the mass of images, I’ll share one when I find them.

These two are Common Terns. Their young were out & about, so naturally the parents were feeling protective. Very protective.

The birds not only yelled at us, there was a lot of strafing and dive bombing. As a result, those of us without hats were instructed to either carry a pole above the top of our heads or hold our hand up with one finger aiming skyward. We were also warned not to hold our cameras above our heads in case they pooped on them.

The Common Murre is the Northern Hemisphere’s analogue to the penguin. Except it can fly. They’re a riot to watch – particularly since they have many of the movements and mannerisms we associate with penguins.

I kept trying to capture those moments without too much success. More work is scheduled for that in August.

Finally today (because I have a lot of them) here’s another Puffin. This one was auditioning for Riverdance.