Lubec, Maine; Machias Seal Island                        July, 2018

Puffins are very, very cute!

If only I were as cute as this!

Imagine my coolness factor with my grandchildren!

So let me devote this post to these wonderful rock stars!  The main selection of these photographs were taken from a blind on Machias Seal Island.  Please see my blogger’s notes at the end of this post for more information about the island and how the Atlantic puffins continue to nest there.

Puffins come ashore to nest

Atlantic Puffins are seabirds that spend most of their lives far out at sea in the northern Atlantic ocean.  They come ashore to breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in burrows dug into the soil beneath the rocks.  After days of high seas that prevented all trips, our boat was able to make the short voyage from Culter, Maine to Machias Seal Island and land on a foggy morning.

It is believed that puffins mate for life …

Little is known about puffins’ lives at sea.  Scientists don’t know how puffins navigate, but somehow after four or five years at sea, puffins find their way back to the colony of their birth!  They prefer remote, offshore islands, especially those free from mammal predators.  They like islands  where there are great jumbles of granite boulders under which they can nest.  They find mates, breed, raise their chick, then (scientists believe) separate to return to sea alone.  Then, for next 15 or more springs, they will come back to the same colony, to the same nest, to join their same mate.  No one knows exactly how the birds find their way back or where the pairs rejoin.  Perhaps they meet in the waters near the colony. 

Or perhaps they meet on the rocks near their old nest.   All we know, through banding and tracking studies, is that usually the same pair uses the same nest – perhaps for the next 20 years!

Puffins dig their nests in the soil beneath the huge rocks.  The male Atlantic puffin builds the nest, tunneling 3 feet or more beneath the rock, then lining it with grass and leaves. 

Puffin nests are incredibly well hidden.  Let me show you:

This puffin has just come up from the nest – do you see it?

Here’s another puffin leaving the nest!  Where’s the nest?!?!

Puffins lay only one egg each year – and don’t usually breed until they are five years old.  This late breeding age and low productivity level, coupled with restricted nesting habitat make them very vulnerable to hunting and human disturbance.  (Thus the need for Canadian Wildlife Service activities and The National Audubon Society’s Project Puffin so that I could take these pictures!)  Both parents incubate the egg and feed their chick – or “puffling.” Incubation is about 40 days.  The incubating parent holds the egg against its brood patch with its wings, keeping the egg warm.  After hatching, both parent share duties feeding their puffling for about 45 days.  They’ll feed it small marine fish several times a day.

Puffins don’t have many enemies near their colonies; gulls are perhaps their biggest enemy.  A gull can catch a puffin mid-air.  Other birds can also attack a puffin carrying herring, trying to steal the precious meal.  Both the male and the female make the trip to sea to catch food for their puffling.  Thus on the return flight, puffins are extremely careful.  Below is a 6-image composite of a returning puffin …

Can you even spot the 6th image?  The puffin has dropped below the vegetation making it difficult to spot.

Here’s another composite (different puffin.)  With food in it’s mouth, as the puffin drops below the vegetation, it slows down, pull up – and drops straight down into its burrow.  The action is so fast my camera – at 8 frames a second – can’t capture the final drop!

Once more, a puffin brings a meal of herring to its chick.

But life in the colony is not only taking care of the little one.  There is also rock hopping!

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And more rock hopping …

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And preening …

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And squawking!

Finally, the little puffling fledges, usually in the dark of night. the young puffins fly out to sea – the cold Artic sea – for four or five years! Then they’ll then be at sea for 4-5 years before returning to the same colony – to begin the cycle again!

Puffins live their lives at sea

Puffins are superbly equipped to spend most of their lives bobbing on the ocean and diving after small fish.

They have a layer of fat that acts as insulation while their feathers “zip” together tightly to trap air for extra warmth.  Seabirds that dive underwater have particularly dense feathers, which helps prevent water from penetrating through the feathers to the bird’s body. The extra trapped air also helps them float as the yrest on the waves.  They are able to drink saltwater because of a special glands that remove the salt from their bloodstream.

As puffins dive for their food, puffins are able to release the air trapped in their wings so they sink more easily.  Their eyes have a double set of eyelids that act as special swim goggles.  When they return to the surface, they are able to fill their wings with air and then zip them up so they float easily and stay warm again.

Puffins have short and sturdy wings.  Most web-footed ducks and seabirds use their webbed feet to swim.  Not puffins.  They are excellent swimmers that use their wings to stroke underwater with a flying motion. They streamline by drawing their legs up under their tail feathers and steer by using their webbed feet as rudders.  They can dive to depths of 200 feet, though they usually stay underwater for only 20 or 30 seconds.  No one knows how, but puffins seem to be able to locate schools of herring, hake, capelin or sand eels so they can feed efficiently diving without going so deep.

Puffins can fly.  But their short sturdy wings make flying hard work.  In the air they beat their wings rapidly, up to 400 times per minute.   Thus flying requires significant energy so puffins probably spend most of their time floating and only fly short distances while at sea.

Their small wings also make takeoff difficult.  When at sea, puffins run using their webbed-feet to lift them out of the water and gain enough speed so their wings can lift them into the air. 

Unfortunately, on a boat, on 5-6 foot seas, watching puffins bob up and down through a 10x magnification lens made me sea sick!   I didn’t care if I got any pictures at all!  So all I can offer is  this view of a puffin launching itself off a a rocky height …

The End!

Blogger’s Note: The interesting case of Machias Seal Island …

Both the United States and Canada claim Machias Seal Island!  The Treaty of Paris, in 1783, drew the boundary between the United States and what is now Canada.  The waters surrounding the island appear to be within the boundaries of  the United States but there is a provision in the Treaty for the maintenance of Canadian possession of “such islands as now are or heretofore have been within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia.”  Nova Scotia claimed Machias Seal Island.  In 1832, the Canadian Coast Guard built a lighthouse on the island and has continuously occupied that lighthouse ever since.  Since 1944, the island has been protected under its designation as the Machias Seal Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary (a wildlife and seabird sanctuary), managed by the Canadian Wildlife Service.

Under a policy of peaceful co-existence, both countries have ignored the dispute but the Canadian Wildlife Service states, “Machias Seal Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary is located on lands owned by Fisheries and Ocean Canada and is open to the public during most of the year for activities that are consistent with the conservation goals of the sanctuary. Please note that, in order to protect the wildlife, entry into the sanctuary is forbidden during the nesting season (June and July). Anyone wishing to enter during this time will need to apply for a permit.”  Given the spirit of peaceful co-existence, the Canadian Fisheries and Ocean Canada grant one boat of 15 American photographers and one boat of 15 Canadian photographers landing rights each day during the nesting season.  Wooden walkways provide access to a series of wooden box blinds so that the photographers can take pictures without disturbing the birds.  Photographers get about one hour in one blind before returning to their boat.  Of course, there is a per- photographer fee for those landing privileges.

Hence, Tom Simpson rose early the first business day of January to call and secure landing rights for our group of GNPA photographers. WOW!  THANKS Tom!

Blogger’s Note:  There are Atlantic puffins here because …

The puffins on on Machias Seal Island, and on the American Islands within the Eastern Egg Rock and Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge were hunted to near extinction for their eggs, feathers, and meat.  Canadian Wildlife Service activities and The National Audubon Society’s Project Puffin spent years rebuilding the Atlantic puffin populations.  Readers of this blog are urged to read the stories and reports of the work necessary to undo this ecological disaster.  We all can enjoy these marvelous birds because of the work of the dedicated scientists who brought the birds back to these islands.

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