Newfoundland Puffins, Gannets and More – June Trip 2022

Newfoundland provides some of the best opportunities to photograph the Atlantic Puffin, Northern Gannet, and other majestic seabirds. On this tour, we go straight to the nesting colonies where these birds have been carrying on life for centuries.

We will start by venturing to the cliffs on the north side of this island where thousands of Atlantic Puffins can be found nesting on a rock outcropping just offshore. This site offers the closest view of puffins from land in North America. We will have the opportunity to photograph Puffins as they guard their burrows, fly in with nesting materials or fish for young, or stand cliffside monitoring the surroundings. Puffins often fly from their nesting rocks to within just feet of us, giving us a chance to photograph these beautiful birds in very close proximity to us.

From here, we head south, traveling through tundra, possibly seeing moose, caribou, fox and other wildlife along the drive. Our destination for this next part of the tour is the world-famous rocky outcropping known as Bird Rock where over 85,000 Northern Gannets engage in courtship and make their nests each year. This location is the third largest nesting site of northern gannets in North America. The sights, sounds (and smells LOL) of this location will fill your senses as you watch male gannets make repeated flights around the colony carrying nesting material in their bills as they attempt to land in the dense colony and deliver seaweed bouquets to their mates below. In addition to gannets, this is the place to photograph Black-legged Kittiwakes with young, murres, and razorbills. These striking birds all nest along the cliffs to either side of Bird Rock.

Wrapping up the trip, we will head towards Witless Bay, where the world’s largest population of Humpback whales return each year to feed on capelin and krill. Weather permitting, we will take a boat ride out to not only photograph the whales but also to capture Puffins at sea as they forage for capelin and fly back to their nests.

Important note: The weather of Newfoundland is quite variable and some of our shooting locations can be fogged in 60-70% of the time. While we will be in all the right places for photography throughout the trip, the weather could be a factor that impacts our ability to take photos. We have planned some extra time at each location to try to account for this but as with all nature photography, there are no guarantees.