For reservations and information call 1-207-633-3244 – 1-800-636-3244 Email Cap’n Fish at mainewhales@adelphia.net

Email us at: mainepuffins@roadrunner.com

ABOUT PUFFINS

Stay at Cap’n Fish’s Waterfront Inn and receive discount tickets to Cap’n Fish’s Whale Watch and Scenic Boat Tours. Puffins are cool! With those big colorful beaks, dark soulful eyes and a penguin-like appearance, it’s hard not to like them. Puffins can typically be found in the very chilly waters of the North Atlantic, in places like Iceland and Norway. Lucky for us then that not far from Boothbay Harbor is the southernmost Atlantic Puffin colony in all of North America – Eastern Egg Rock. In Maine, Puffins are rare, and are actually listed as a Threatened Species. On Eastern Egg Rock, however, there are about 90 nesting pairs, along with perhaps a thousand pairs of Terns and other unusual seabirds. During the summertime, Puffins come ashore to raise their young, and the female lays her egg in a crevice under the tumble of boulders that line the shoreline of Eastern Egg Rock Once the chicks are full grown – usually by mid-August – all the Puffins leave their nesting island and fly out to sea to spend the winter. And they don’t come back to land til next April.

ABOUT THE TOUR

A Puffin-watching cruise is kind of like an ocean-going treasure hunt…. you just never know what’s going to show up! As we travel through Boothbay Harbor and search for all the marvelous sea creatures which call this area their home, seals often surface near the boat, or can be found sunning themselves on the rocks. A loon flies by. A Minke Whale surprises everyone with its sheer size and bulk. And, of course there are lighthouses, which we know as permanent treasures here on the New England coast. As the boat gets to Eastern Egg Rock, everyone is up and looking around for those pint-sized little Puffins. We scan the rocks and the skies, and then someone shouts, and lo and behold there is a group of Puffins sitting in the water, bobbing up and down, perhaps 50 or 60 feet from the boat. More fly by, and soon someone spots a bunch sitting on the granite boulders along shore. We slowly circle the seven-acre island once or twice, and dozens of large Eider Ducks spring from the water into flight. Laughing Gulls cry out with their loud, cackling vocalizations. And more puffins and their funny little cousins, the Black Guillemots, whiz past us, going about 40 miles an hour. When its time to start back, the excitement on the boat is still high. Success! We saw a bird that very few Mainers have ever seen – the ocean-going, charismatic Atlantic Puffin… ~ Peter Salmansohn, Project Puffin

PRICES AND SCHEDULE

See at first hand the National Audubon Society’s success in reestablishing a Puffin Colony on Eastern Egg Rock. Truly a magnificent “Seafari” for all nature lovers with seals, blue heron, an occasional whale and other coastal wildlife along the way. June – Wednesdays only 10:00 am July – Late August – Wednesdays, Sundays 10:00am 2 1/2 Hour Tour ADULTS: $25.00 CHILDREN $15.00

(Source: http://www.mainepuffin.com/)

Tufted Puffins are not found in the UK or possibly the whole of Europe. So imagine the surprise of the British people who saw one off the coast on September 16th at the Oare Marshes reserve in the Swale Estuary near Faversham about 1 1/2 hours east of London.

This little bird, the clown-of-the-sea, is definitely far from home in a place very different from the natural habitat of puffins which consists of rocky sea cliffs at the Oare Marshes. His unexpected appearance begs the question, how did the find his way to the UK?

It seems the sighting of the Tufted Puffin is as exciting for the British as it is for us puffin lovers—inspiring people to travel from hours away to see it for the first time in a place it never visits. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people in the UK.

It reminds me how lucky I am to be living in a state where the Tufted Puffin feels at home, Washington State. But for how much longer? With global warming, natural predators and a lack of funds to really help protect them? I cringe at the thought of losing the Tufted Puffin and revel in the mishap chance of a wayward Tufted Puffin finding its way to the coast of the UK. Maybe he fancied a spot of tea. Maybe he was simply lost at sea.

M Wright (Photo)

Whatever brought the Tufted Puffin to the UK pales in comparison to the joy he will bring to the bird lovers who will visit him while he is there. We should all enjoy the Tufted Puffin while we can—near or far from its home—with its long, fuzzy eyebrows and quirky little walk before he moves on to a different place…due to climate change or worse due to neglect, habitat loss or natural predators.

Talking to the Zookeepers pays off!! Next time you visit a zoo—say hello and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Tufted puffin couple at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium currently has 20 tufted puffins in its exhibit, 9 males and 11 females. The tufted puffins range in age from 1 to 31. They currently have the oldest living puffin in captivity at 31 years of age!! He is only 3 years younger than me! =) Not only is he the oldest living puffin in captivity but tufted puffins are thought to only be capable of producing and raising chicks until their mid-twenties but this 31-year-old tufted puffin is a proud papa this year! The Pt. Defiance Zoo and Aquarium also has the oldest living female in captivity at 27 years old. And if all this isn’t enough to make you get excited they also have 3 tufted puffin pairs that they believe are raising chicks this year. I wrote ‘they believe’ because the zookeepers try to let the tufted puffins raise the chicks as naturally as possible so the zookeepers do not check on their progress. They wait and are surprised by the little ones in the exhibit. How fun is that?!?

This is one of the tufted puffin mothers who had a chick this year

The youngest tufted puffin chick at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium as of August 2009!

The Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium is currently in the middle of some intensive training with their puffins as well. In the past year they have been training them to eat from the zookeepers’ hands so that they can better deliver any vitamins and medications the puffins may need. The training has been extremely successful so far. Part of this training for the last 6 months included working on scale training the puffins (training the puffins to step on a scale in order to get more frequent weights) instead of having to catch the puffins and hold them to get their weight. Catching them is extremely stressful for the puffins and so the the new weighing techniques has been very effective for both the zookeepers and the puffins. The Pt. Defiance Zoo now has weights on all birds except for about 4.

It is amazing what some hard work can produce! These quirky adorable little birds are definitely smarter than the zookeepers realized. I, for one, am looking forward to discovering more about the little pufflings and the progress of the training at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium!

For more information on the puffin exhibit (within the Rocky Shores exhibit) at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium—you can visit them online at their official website or in person at:

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
5400 N Pearl St # D Ruston, WA 98407-3296
(253) 591-5337

What are the hours and days of operation to see the puffins at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium? The zoo is open from 9:30-6:00 until September 7. After that the zoo is open from 9:30-5:00. The birds can be viewed any time during those hours, their exhibit is never closed.

When are the best times to go to see the puffins at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium if you have questions?
They feed their puffins 3 times a day during breeding season, twice a day during non-breeding season. As of right now, they are fed at approximately 8:00, 12:00-1:00, and 3:00-3:30. They will discontinue the last feeding during non-breeding season. This isn’t really definitive, but there is not a set schedule to when they feed their animals but this is a good guess. I will update you when I find out more…

An Atlantic puffin on Maine's on Eastern Egg Rock appears to imitate a decoy on July 9 by standing on one leg. Decoys were used to lure the gregarious birds ashore after they were re-introduced to the island following a 100-year absence. Photo by Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Hunted to extinction in state, they’re thriving thanks to human help Puffins, which resemble half-pint penguins except that they can fly, were heavily hunted along the Maine coast for their meat and feathers, and by 1901 only one pair remained, researchers said. Puffins are often confused with penguins. They have similar colors, and both swim under water using their wings as fins, but they are not related and live at opposite polar ends of the world.

In 1973, with backing from the National Audubon Society and help from the Canadian Wildlife Service, Kress began transplanting 2-week-old puffin chicks from Great Island off Newfoundland, 1,000 miles to the northeast.

These days there are 90 nesting pairs on Eastern Egg, among more than 700 nesting pairs on four Maine islands, Kress said.

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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