Bermuda is only a 2 hour flight from Boston. One of the things that struck me as we flew in was how you could see the shadows of the clouds on the ocean. In general, it felt like the clouds were lower there. I don't know if that was because of the lack of tall mountains (or... anything) around the island to push the clouds up, or if it was just my imagination.
It was also interesting how long it took to actually see the island as we were landing, since it's so tiny.
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It's a small airport, so you get off the plane on the runway and then walk in. That's where I saw the first wildlife of the trip - literally the same house sparrows we have here. Surprise!
On the ride to the place we were staying, I saw something more interesting, this bright yellow bird. I saw another one later... and then more. It turns out they're everywhere also. But more interesting than a house sparrow. Greater Kiskadee https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Kiskadee/id #photo
Another bird that I saw on the first day that I thought was unusual but turned out to be absolutely everywhere on the island (including in the yard of the place we were staying) was these yellow crowned night herons.
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The ferry system was a big part of the public transit system on the island. There's a good bus system, but the ferry can be more direct and less crowded. We generally took the ferry into the city of Hamilton, and the bus from there. The ferry stops are small pink buildings. You may notice nearly all the buildings have the same type of white roof. These are made of limestone or slate slabs that are plastered over, according to an old man I talked to on the bus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Bermuda#Bermudian_roof
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More buildings and landscapes from the ferry. It's impressive how there are so many buildings there, and everything is jam packed together, but there's also still lots of trees right around them. I feel like here we wouldn't leave as many trees. It seemed different, at least.
Also note the scooters on the front of the ferry in the first picture. There's lots of scooters in Bermuda, referred to as 'bikes.' Tourists can't rent cars, but they can rent bikes.
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The place we stayed was kind of ideal for lights over water type pictures because you could walk down to a dock and see the sunset over the water in the evening, and then from the ferry facing the other direction you could see the lights from Hamilton at night* and the sunrise in the morning.
*I didn't get a good picture of that due to streetlight flares and not wanting to disturb a guy who was fishing
A couple other morning pictures from the ferry stop, from a different morning. #photo
Other pictures of/right around where we were staying.
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We generally took the bus from the big terminal in Hamilton, which is a short walk from the ferry stop. It's actually near this big cathedral you can see from the ferry on the way in (depending upon the ferry route).
The roads are very narrow and there's lots of little tiny kei cars there, but the busses are pretty much full size city busses.
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A second take on that shot from under the bus terminal awning. I felt like there was something good to capture there with the super contrasty warm light, the pigeons and trash, brightly colored buildings, and a tree growing up tall amongst all of it. I think this is the better shot, but the previous one had more of the context of the bus station setting I was talking about, so you get both lol
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One of the places we took the bus to was horseshoe bay. This is a relatively developed beach that can be fairly busy, especially with cruise ship people, but if you walk just a little ways from the main beach there are several other smaller ones with almost no one there. Those areas also have rocky cliffs and overhangs that provide shade (and shelter from rain).
In general the water in Bermuda is extremely clear, and always this super bright cyan near shore.
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Horseshoe bay beach life part 1: There's lots of little plants all over the rocks.
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Horseshoe bay beach life part 2: more plants
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Horseshoe bay beach life part 3: Chitons!
These things look prehistoric but are very much alive and all over in the tidepools and on the rocks.
Another very notable thing we saw at the beach was these white-tailed tropicbirds, known locally as "longtails" - the national bird of Bermuda.
They nest in the rocks.
When they flew near the shore, the cyan of the ocean reflected up onto them. It's so bright.
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https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/white-tailed-tropicbird
Another note about the beach: Bermuda is known for having pink sand. I have to say, at least at this beach in particular, the pinkness was very slight - but in this picture of a very tiny crab you can see why the sand would be pink: little tiny reddish particles. I've read that this is the shells of microorganisms called forams (but I also read that it's eroded coral - I don't know, maybe it's both).
On the way back from the beach we saw this bright bluegreen lizard. I'm pretty sure these are color-changing lizards since I saw very similar looking ones in several different colors - but I never actually saw them change, so I don't know for sure...
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The cave place actually had a very pretty little park as its grounds, with some nest boxes for birds. Just while standing around figuring out where we were going I saw this bluebird. This is a composite of an 11 shot burst which I used to attempt to reduce noise (because I had to lighten the bird a lot in post, due to the dark shadow it was in). The butterfly flew through in several frames, so I left it in multiple times (why not?).
The next place we went was the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, & Zoo.
(https://bamz.org - AZA accredited)
We stopped for food and saw lots of wild fish in the clear water below the cafeteria balcony.
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The aquarium focused on local marine life and had great realistic displays. It was a small place, but they had a lot.
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While the aquarium mostly focused on local marine wildlife, the zoo also had exhibits about Australasian and Caribbean islands, and Madagascar.
(https://bamz.org - AZA accredited)
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zoo stuff (part 2)
(https://bamz.org - AZA accredited)
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The alligator is a funny shot because there was a thick chainlink fence, and I wanted to get a really low angle, so I had to shoot through the bottom of the fence, which you could hardly see through. So to blur the fence out I got really far back - and then people were looking at me, trying to figure out what I was taking a picture of, looking like right in front of me. I was using an 800mm lens...
The next day, we took a longer ferry ride to the Royal Navy Dockyard, where all the cruise ships dock.
There’s a lot of tourist trap - type stores there, in the historic naval base buildings. These seem to be in a state of semi-intentional decay, externally, at least.
There’s actually a nice little local arts and crafts market hidden in all this, though.
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From there we took the bus to the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse. It’s the tallest thing around, and gave a great panoramic view of the whole island. It was very windy.
I almost lost my hat.
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(that's scaled down, but it's still a really big panorama)
(side note: we didn't intend to stop at the lighthouse, but I got sick on the bus and we had to ✌ 🆗 🆒)
It had been raining on and off all day, but just as we got to Horseshoe Bay beach again, a torrential downpour let loose.
But, heck, it’s the beach, we were going to get wet anyway, and our bags were waterproof, so we waited it out in the shelter of the rocky cliffs, while other people left.
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Horseshoe bay in the rain part 2
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The dark clouds made the longtails stand out, and you could still see the color of the water reflecting off them.
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(the last one there is a timelapse)
On my last day on the island, it was raining heavily on and off. We had a relaxing morning watching the rain.
Then I got the last of my stuff together, took the ferry to Hamilton, then the bus to the airport, and the plane home.
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The end!
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@masklayer These are really peaceful to look at and reflect on. Thx for sharing!
@averlydoesphotostuff Glad you liked them, thank you
@masklayer Beautiful pictures!!!
@Rubyneko Thanks!
@masklayer You used "We" and "I'm" in the same paragraph. This point distracts me from your otherwise great photos. I'm speaking to all of you.
@TomHarrington "we" because my parents and I saw it, "I'm" because my parents know more about wildlife stuff than I do since they're both biologists, so I personally *think* they're color changing lizards, but my parents probably knew one way or the other, so that part only applied to me
The next day we took the bus to crystal cave. This is a very touristy place. It's a cave with deep clear water and geological formations. It's cool that they've made it very easy for people to see this place, but on the other hand, any cave ecosystem that may have existed is definitely gone now, and there's algae and slime everywhere because they leave the lights on. More about tourism than conservation - which I guess is where the money is. I'm sure they're doing what they can.
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