Puffinpalooza » puffin conservation

If you lure them, will they come?

Magpie — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 05:16:23 +0000

On Ramsey Island, they are trying something a little quirky to lure puffins back. They have placed hundreds of puffin decoys to trick the sea clowns to the island. If they work, the puffins will find burrows and nests built just for them by these puffin researchers/conservations. If this works, it’ll be the first puffins there for over a century! =) Let’s hope they succeed. We are rooting you on for certain!

(A video about this on BBC can be see here.)

Stephen Kress speaking about puffins this Saturday

Puffling — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:39:48 +0000

This event is being held at the Carlisle Visitor Center in LaGrange, Ohio this Saturday, January 12th 2011. This event is free but space is limited.

Here is the description from the website,

Humans have devastated seabird colonies by excessive hunting and by introducing non-native mammals. Worldwide, 23% of all seabird species are now globally threatened by pollution, coastal development, and sea level rise from global warming. Although seabird nesting islands seem safe due to their remoteness, they are intimately connected to human activities.

Stephen Kress, Director of National Audubon Society’s Seabird Restoration Program, will review how techniques developed in Maine led to the restoration of puffins and terns to their historic nesting islands. He will also describe how these techniques help seabirds worldwide through several case studies including efforts to save the Common Murres in California, Caspian Terns in the Columbia River estuary, and the endangered Bermuda Petrel.

Location:

12882 Diagonal Road
LaGrange, Ohio 44050
440-458-5121

Stephen Kress has also given an excellent speech titled, “Restoring Endangered Seabirds: Lessons from Puffins and Terns,” which is available for order at the National Digital Library.

Oregon Puffin Populations Dwindling

admin — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:00:56 +0000

In the past 30 years, the tufted puffins populations along the Oregon coast have dramatically decreased from 5,000 to just a few hundred. This is such a drastic decline in population and the reasons are varied and uncertain. Predatory birds, climate change, overpopulation (people), changing ocean conditions, and simply not enough food and space for the birds to thrive as they once did.

This is the story of many coastal places where puffins once were aplenty.

We must change our ways or we will see the bright, quirky little birds disappear completely.

Puffins Resurface On Maine Isles

Puffling — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:01:24 +0000

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.