June 16: puffins and coal

[kirkcudbright]

We went on a puffin boat tour to the Bird Islands. In addition to the puffins, there are razorbills (kind of like a northern penguin, only they can fly), a couple kinds of cormorants, a couple kinds of gulls, and kittiwakes (basically another kind of gull). Also grey seals and bald eagles.

Unfortunately, this is the best puffin picture I managed to get. They were nesting on the cliffs, bobbing on the water like black and white rubber duckies, and flapping madly through the air. But my camera has limited zoom and limited pixels.



Damn, I can't remember the name of this jellyfish. There were a lot of them, together with moon jellies and gooseberry jellies, in Englishtown Harbour, as we were waiting for the puffin cruise.



The friendly coast of Cape Breton. Note the eeny lobster boat cruising along the shore.



Cormorants, on a favourite rock.



Kittiwakes nesting on the cliff face.



More cormorants.



Bald eagle, circling the ship, because it knows the captain will give it a fish.



Boularderie Bridge, over the Cabot Strait.



Then we went to the Cape Breton Miners' Museum in Glace Bay. Most of the local coal seams extend well under the ocean, so this was referred to as submarine mining. In its heydey, there were something like 26 mines operating concurrently, extending as much as 7km out, and they hadn't exhausted the supply.

They Miners Museum features a small colliery, purpose-built for the museum, that only goes out as far as the water line (so we're told). The tour was conducted by a talkative ex-miner, who regaled us with endless tales about how life was in the good old days (i.e. pretty bad).

Kylie next to a bull wheel, a pulley that used to raise and lower men and ore.



A pneumatic rock drill. They used to cut a groove in the rock face, load it with explosives and blast it out, then shovel out the coal by hand.

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

what! what? what!?

puffins can FLY?

omg, they're coming RIGHT FOR US.

them! they can put an eye out!

aieyeeeee

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[doctordidj.livejournal.com]

Puffin wings are short and stubby enough that they can swim underwater with them, like penguins, but still big enough that they can fly, although they have to whirr their wings really hard and they don't generally fly too far. They are really cute.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

actually, yes, i knew they could fly. i was being silly :)

it's kind of startling to see actually.

though more startling i suppose for some, is finding out that some things that they assumed couldn't fly, do. a lot. with vigor. like praying mantiseses and the VERY large palmetto bugs :> bwa hah hah. the "they CAN *FLY*" is a rough quote of a friend of mine having seen one do this - after a lifetime of assuming at best, they crawled :} :} :}

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[doctordidj.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! Okay, I went into pedant mode there, I'll stop.

I remember friends who insisted that cockroaches could not fly ... apparently because they were freaked by the idea.

"they're coming right at us" makes me smile and think of this (http://www.thedevilspanties.com/d/20080515.html).