The Birds of Bermuda

 

I didn’t have to go far to score a lifer bird right away in Bermuda. The Airbnb where we stayed in July had gorgeous Atlantic Ocean views. 

Called Longtails by the locals is a seabird known for its elegant, predominantly white plumage and long white-tail streamers, according to one online description. 

All day long these (formal name) White-tailed Tropicbirds flew back and forth near the shoreline. It was a challenge to get quality in-flight images with my Canon SX70 “superzoom” DSLR. 

Occasionally a Longtail would pivot from shore patrol to fly to the limestone cliffs to visit their nests in the many cracks and crevices. Or maybe they are scouting future nest sites. 

These birds rarely stop flying, except to nest and rest, something I never witnessed. For food they will plunge dive into the sea to catch small fish, squids (yuck!) and crustaceans.

Bermuda Snorkeling- Swimming with the Fishes

 

My previous post, “Five Things to Love about Bermuda,” gives a detailed account of our amazing 40th wedding anniversary trip to the island paradise. In this piece, I want to focus on our snorkeling activities. In preparation, we dug our masks and snorkels out of storage (tested them at our neighborhood pool), bought fins and a duffle bag to carry the gear and other things. We ended up only trying the fins once, finding them very awkward on the beach and not really beneficial since we didn't go out too far in the ocean. 

Tobacco Bay in St. George’s, shown in these two photos, was one of several beaches we visited during our July 12-19 vacation. 

Alesia points out fish she saw at Tobacco Bay. I followed her cue and shot the video shown next.

My GoPro Hero Black 8 took many high-quality video and still shots. The attachable yellow handle that floats works great while I swam and looked for fish. I kept the strap around my wrist to avoid the camera getting away from me. I’m not the strongest swimmer, so I felt safer wearing an inflatable vest, especially as we noticed how quickly the water could get very deep. 

Five Things to Love about Bermuda

 

On July 13 Alesia and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in style on the beautiful island of Bermuda. We were there for a week, Saturday to Saturday, July 12-19. I came away impressed with at least five things about Bermuda: its beaches, history, landscape and architecture, restaurants and its people.

Earlier this year Bermudair airline began a weekly direct flight from Charleston to Bermuda’s capital Hamilton. The flight takes only two hours covering the nearly 900 mile distance over the Atlantic Ocean east of the Carolinas. 

Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, is known for beautiful beaches, turquoise water, pink powdery sand and natural limestone cliffs. I took this photograph at Horseshoe Bay. Keep reading to see more pink sand we found at Warwick Long Bay. 

Snorkeling at the many beaches and bays is also popular. We were definitely down for snorkeling having done some during our several Caribbean Island vacations years ago. Our last Caribbean trip was the British Virgin Islands in 2015. See my photos from BVI! 

I had barely used my GoPro Black 8 underwater camera since then and needed to review how to use it. I did experience some malfunctions the first time or two in Bermuda but kept at it and have many nice captures, video and stills like the image above. 

Alesia is a great swimmer and was very comfortable out there. I felt better wearing an inflatable “floaty” for my safety.