Wildlife Cruise through the Broken Group Islands

The wildlife cruise was one of the highlights of this trip.  We lucked out with a beautiful day that started out with a mist which helped give the islands an added ambiance.  The mist cooperatively disappeared at the right time to allow the boat to go through!  There were ample sightings of wildlife, starting with a great blue heron near shore, a couple of bald eagles, ample sea lions, seals and sea otters with cubs, even a bear with two cubs and a bonus whale sighting without even needing to chase it.   

The boat cruise started in Ucluelet and cruised through the Broken Group Islands to the south of Ucluelet.  These islands looked magical in the mist and when the sun broke through, we saw some beautiful rock formations on the islands.  It was a relaxing five hours on the boat with the occasional excitement from wildlife sightings.  A delicious gourmet lunch was served on board - a perfect break after the excitement over then whale sighting.  It was then a leisurely cruise back to Ucluelet, wrapped up with a black bear and cubs sighting - a perfect end to the cruise!

This was what greeted us at the beginning of the cruise

This Great Blue Heron was waiting for us beside the dock

Then another one flew by the boat mid-cruise

We saw two bald eagles on different trees, lots of sea lions including what is considered a rare sighting of a Steller Sea lion in these parts.

Steller sea lion

The beauty of the seascape often took my breath away - it was sometimes Wow! at every turn and almost impossible to put the camera down.  I had two cameras on me - one for landscapes and one for wildlife.  It was a constant scramble to pick up one or the other!

Then came the cute sea otters cuddling the cubs!

Seal and pup

The Humpback

Mama bear and her two cubs

The mist was gone and these beautiful rock formations were revealed

Birds in the Breidafjordur (West Iceland)

The boat cruise in the Breidafjordur was one of the high points of my trip to Iceland. I had waited 10 years to see the puffin, having missed it when I was in Newfoundland in 2008. I considered myself very lucky to be able to see it and captured it in action.

On the bird rock, there were nesting black-legged kittiwakes, fulmars and shags. On the water, we saw the guillemots and the eiders which were all over Iceland. There was also a seal tossed in to the mix. The kittiwakes were very noisy; it seems that they squawk every time they flew back to the nest and there were often corresponding sounds from the mate. 

The Puffin - can it get any cuter!

Having fun in the water!

Getting ready to fly

Black-legged kittiwakes flying back to the nest

Kittiwakes talking to each other

 

The tube-nosed fullmar looked like a kittiwake from afar. It is interesting that the tube-nose actually helped the fullmar remove salt from their system since as a seabird, it imbibes a lot of salt water.

Fullmar lounging in a nice garden

This one is trying to wake up the lady

Fullmars flew very close to the water

The shags look very similar to cormorants only smaller. Its feathers have a green tinge and it is sometimes called the green cormorant.

Shag nesting on the bird cliff

Street scene - shags and eider watching the puffin

Pair of eiders - the female and male looked completely different

Eider male in flight

Black-backed gull - I saw this guy high up on a cliff and thought it was a puffin. Good thing it didn't take long for the real puffin to show up.

 

A Black guillemot walking on water (getting ready to take off)

The one seal we saw

Bird condo