In August 2018 I took a trip to Quebec ,Canada. My goal was to photograph nesting Puffins. I visited the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve. This is located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I was able to do some hiking on a couple of the islands in the gulf plus stay for three nights on Ile Aux Perroquets. On Ile Aux Perroquets there is a nesting colony of 350 to 500 Puffins plus ~700 Razorbills. The island is only 100 meters by 400 meters in size. I was able to see and photograph the birds up fairly close.  The Puffin chicks are born around July 10th and fledge 6 weeks later. By the end of August all the Puffins and Razorbills have left the island and won't return until the next year. I think the term hit the ground running must have been coined from watching the Puffins. When a Puffin returns from the ocean with a mouth full of fish they tend to land within a foot of their burrow. As they hit the ground they immediately run into the burrow so their fish can't be stolen by another bird. This makes it very difficult to get a photograph of a Puffin standing with fish in their mouth.

The sea gulls on the island have developed a very interesting behavior. At low tide they pick up sea urchins. The urchins have a shell. The sea gulls fly up and then drop the urchin on the rocks breaking open the shell so they then can eat the soft insides.

While visiting the area I was fortunate to see a nesting pair of Red-troated Loons.