Ask Maine Audubon

by Eric Hynes, Staff Naturalist

June 16, 2010

Topics: Conservation | Birding | Trips

 

Even though it's one of Maine's iconic wildlife species, the Atlantic Puffin isn't easy to find. One challenge is that these birds spend most of their lives far out at sea, diving underwater to catch small fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. For just a few months each summer, they convene at a handful of rugged, hard-to-reach islands far off Maine's coast to establish nests and raise their chicks.

Another difficulty is that Maine's puffins are still recovering from a legacy of overhunting that nearly eliminated their nesting colonies in Maine. By the early 1900s, there was only one nesting pair left in Maine.

In 1973, ornithologist Stephen Kress founded Project Puffin, a National Audubon program to re-establish a nesting colony on Eastern Egg Rock in outer Muscongus Bay. Today, after years of hard work, the colony on Eastern Egg Rock is self-sustaining and slowly growing, along with other successful colonies on Seal Island, Matinicus Rock, and Machias Seal Island.

The best way to see a these charismatic birds is to take a guided day trip from Hardy Boat Cruises in New Harbor ("Puffin Pete" Salmansohn and I will be leading three sunset cruises to benefit Maine Audubon on July 8, July 18, and August 6 - see page 6 for details). These tours slowly circle Eastern Egg Rock for an up-close view of puffins, terns, and other rare seabirds.

This time of year also offers good opportunities to see one of Maine's 100,000 harbor seals, or the rarer and larger gray seal. Like puffins, seals dive deep into the ocean to hunt for fish. Recent research has discovered that harbor seal pups, typically born in late May or early June, wean themselves and learn to dive up to 200 feet deep by mid-July, and double their weight from 22 to 44 pounds during the same period.

If you'd prefer to stay on dry land, visit the Project Puffin Visitor Center at 311 Main Street in Rockland for the next best thing: a real-time video connection that delivers live footage from Eastern Egg Rock. The Visitor Center is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm through October.

-Eric Hynes,
Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist