The Witless Bay Ecological Reserve contains four islands—Gull, Green, Great, and Pee Pee—that teem with bird life during the seabird breeding season.

The reserve contains North America’s largest Atlantic puffin colony. More than 260,000 pairs of the province’s official bird nest here during the late spring and summer.

In addition, black-legged kittiwakes and common murres appear in the thousands.

The islands lie just a few kilometres off the east coast of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula, between the communities of Bay Bulls and Bauline East, half an hour south of St. John’s. The reserve area takes in 31 km²-29 km² of this is a marine area around the islands. Regulations govern the operation of boats inside the reserve during the sensitive nesting season (April 1-September 1).

Seabirds generally spend most of the year at sea and only return to land from May to August to breed and raise their young. For the most part, public observation of their activities must be done from boats-landing on the islands themselves requires a scientific research or special access permit.

The Witless Bay Islands are part of the Maritime Barrens-Southeastern Barrens subregion (pdf). The Islands were originally designated a wildlife reserve in 1964. They became the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve in 1983, three years after the Wilderness and Ecological Reserves Act was passed.

(The above information was copy and pasted directly from the official website for Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.)

If you want to see the ‘largest Atlantic puffin colony in North America’ you can book a tour with O’Briens.

Puffin (Photograph by DK Bhaskar

Visit puffins (and many other great seabirds) on this travel trip to Scotland.
“More than 75,000 puffins breed on these little islands, along with 30 other species of seabirds. Nearly 160 different species of birds migrate through this passage every year,” said Marsh, carefully guiding us along the wooden pathways.

Farne Islands (BBC photo)

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2009 Schedule

Puffin Cruises
Glacier Spirit

Saturdays, 6 to 9 pm

July 11, 18, 25 and August 1 & 8, 2009

Protection Island, at the mouth of Discovery Bay, is a very special; place in the summer. Dry, brown and lonely, it looks like a most inhospitable place. But it is alive with thousands of nesting birds – rhinocerous auklets, glaucous-winged gulls, pigeon guillemots, double-crested and pelagic cormorants, black oystercatchers, and even a few pairs of tufted puffins. It is for a glimpse of the elusive tufted puffin that many visitors make the trip. As every birder knows, no guarantee can be made that they will be sighted on every outing, but chances are very good that they will be spotted especially on the south side of the island. Like rhinocerous auklets, for which Protection Island is the major nesting site, the puffin use burrows in the cliffs and uplands to raise one or sometimes two chicks. The chance to see them carrying many small fish at one time in their bills, or even swimming, flying, or diving, is exciting.

Reservations: Tickets are $55 per person ($50 for PTMSC, Audubon, Burke Museum or Washington Ornithological Society members) and child or group rates may be arranged. Proceeds go to support educational programs at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.

Protection Island Cruises are offered in collaboration with Puget Sound Express.
For reservations: (800) 566-3932 ~ (360) 385-5582 ~ e-mail: cruises@ptmsc.org