Stellar!

We arrive at our campground in the early afternoon. This gives us the time to have lunch and set up the campsite. We are unhitched from the trailer and take the short the drive to Elliston where they call themselves the Root Cellar Capital of the World. Granted there are a ton of root cellars there, but our reason for going to Elliston is to view Puffins. We’ve been here before so we head to the parking area and walk the quarter mile or so to the of a narrow peninsular that ends with a 200 foot cliff to the ocean. 100 yards off the end of the peninsular is a sea stack/island that is covered with Puffins. These seabirds spend their entire lives at sea with the exception of breeding and raising of a single chick each year. They mate for life and each year come back to the same burro.

At this location, if people stay back from the edge and allow some room some puffins will come to our side. A few puffins came to our side and posed for a few photos. While there Wells meets another bird photographer and he mentions he was on a boat tour in the morning and viewed the Stellar’s Sea Eagle. In the last sentence we use the word “the” verses “a.” The eagle is the largest of all eagles maybe 3 to 5 pounds heavier than a Bald Eagle and is found in Japan and Asia’s east coast. This eagle has been sighted in various places first in Alaska then in Maine and Nova Scotia and then it disappeared. A couple of weeks ago a whale tour boat spotted the eagle but had no clue what it was. They took a photo and birders quickly identified it as a Stellar’s Sea Eagle. The tour boat operator started doing tours to see the bird. They saw it seven days in a row until today. They looked with 13 paying passengers onboard for 2 ½ hours. Fifteen minutes before giving up they spotted it.

We decide to attempt to sign up for the trip for tomorrow. Luckily there’s room and we show up early the next morning to the dock about 25 miles south of our campsite. We have 11 passengers split between serious birders and bird photographers. After two hours of searching with no luck other than repeating over and over, “Oh no, it’s just another bald eagle.” Then we see it, this majestic bird! It’s simply breathtaking.

We enjoy lunch at the Two Whales Café where we’ve eaten a few times in past years then back to the campground. Wells takes off to photograph puffins gain while Marsha enjoys some down time. Again, a few puffins cooperate and fly to our side.