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Sunday, August 3, 2003
A passion for puffins
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MUSCOGNUS BAY — The waves were 6 to 7 feet at the start, but out in Muscognus Bay the seas were calm. Best of all, birds were all around. It was, as guide and veteran Audubon birding guide Pete Salmansohn said, a perfect night to find puffins. The ride out provided a far-reaching view, and Eastern Egg Rock was a haunting sight an hour before sunset. Winged seabirds were everywhere, racing around the water as if in response to Neptune's dinner bell. "This island is alive. Right now there are about 10,000 birds on Eastern Egg Rock screaming their heads off for fish," Salmansohn said. A bonanza of birds, yes, but the view of puffins? They are there, but it's not what you'd expect. "People think they're much smaller (when they see them) in real life. They're smaller than a lobster buoy, they're little guys," said Audubon guide and researcher Sue Schubel, alias "Seabird Sue." The puffins that appeared for the Audubon-led cruise proved fast and yes, unusual. But they also were too far away to show any likeness to the pretty postcard birds distinguished by the brilliant, red-orange-tipped bill. Nor did the puffins offer an up-close view of their red-orange legs, or distinctive triangular eyes that give a clown-like appearance to the little bird. About the only thing the cruise made clear about puffins is that they are indeed a little bird, just 10 inches in height and weighing 13 ounces. Hundreds of puffin fans flock to Maine's coastal waters to view puffins on one of the many seabird cruises. Most of the cruises find some puffins, Salmansohn said. But, he added, few see puffins as close as those captured on film by professional photographers. Those appear as big as penguins. Sightings of puffins in Maine have only been possible since they were reintroduced here 30 years ago. Salmansohn said because of this, some think the bird is endangered. In fact, estimates of the puffin population range from 12 million to 15 million, according to National Audubon. "In Newfoundland, people eat puffins," Salmansohn said. "I spoke to one woman on a cruise who said she had puffin pizza." More than 100 years ago, eating puffins would have been part of everyday life for coastal settlers in Maine. In 1880, puffins were extirpated from Maine by colonists who collected their eggs for food, Salmansohn said. Colonial settlers over-hunted puffins, as they did many seabirds in the days before wildlife sanctuaries. By 1900, all the puffins were gone from Maine except for two isolated colonies. On Matinicus Rock, in outer Penobscot Bay, the last two puffins survived at the turn of the last century because they were protected by the lighthouse keeper, who had been hired by the Bird Protection Committee of the American Ornithological Union, Salmansohn said. In 1973, puffins began a comeback in the Gulf of Maine when Stephen Kress began Project Puffin, an effort with the National Audubon Society and the Canadian Wildlife Service to re-establish a puffin colony on Eastern Egg Rock. For more than 10 years chicks were brought from Newfoundland to Eastern Egg Rock and put in burrows so the birds would identify the rock as home and return to breed there. In 1981, when the first transplanted puffins on Eastern Egg Rock began breeding, five nests were discovered, Salmansohn said. Today, he said there are about 500 pairs of puffins nesting on four islands in Maine and as many as 300 pairs on Matinicus Rock. "I went to Newfoundland in 1986 and 1987," said Schubel, who led a cruise a week ago. "In 1987, the feeling was they were beginning to take hold." Maine is the southernmost place in the puffins' North American range, according to Audubon. Many breed on Eastern Egg Rock in Muscongus Bay, where there are 60 islands stretched across 12 miles. The Audubon-led puffin cruise that left New Harbor a week ago saw more than a dozen feeding puffins, some flying past the ship with furious flapping wings, some sitting like ducks on the water, others sticking their bright faces into the ocean to search for food. Salmansohn has led more than 1,100 puffin cruises over 20 years. Very few times do the cruises return without seeing a puffin, he said. The cruises are about more than puffins, as Salmansohn's group a week ago saw a seal, black guillemot, cormorant and terns. A birder or two might identify some of these species, but most show little interest until a puffin is spotted. Salmansohn touches on Audubon's work bringing back the federally endangered roseat tern to the coast of Maine, as well as the common tern, but as the boat approaches Eastern Egg Rock, all the chatter is about puffins. The cruise leaves New Harbor about an hour and a half from sunset - so that it reaches the rock when the birds are feeding, about 45 minutes before sunset. While captain Ron Peabody maneuvers the boat sideways, about 100 yards from the island, the puffins, many in small groups bobbing on the waves, appear smaller than a football, to which they're often compared. The boat ventures no closer out of consideration for the birds. As the boat moves slowly around the island, the birds are less visible and puffins are hard to find. But as it returns to the eastern side of the island, just as the sun prepares to dip behind land to the west, more puffins are seen within 15 feet of the boat, despite the fact they are virtually camouflaged by the dark waves. Salmansohn tries to help, instructing the crowd on the three ways to view puffins. "Look for them sitting on the water, sitting on a rock or flying through the air," he said. Other clues for identifying puffins are offered on the trip. "They make a groaning noise, kind of like a sick moose," Salmansohn said. A puffin flew within 5 to 10 feet of the bow, but considering they can fly up to 55 miles an hour and beat their wings as many as 400 times a minute, the bird's sharp colors and cherubic body could not be seen very well. Only moments before the sun, an enormous red-yellow disk, slips out of sight, the puffins are gone. The view of the birds, while not as spectacular as all those postcards suggest, was at least proof the birds are here in Maine in good numbers. Still, Salmansohn stokes the puffin craze. As the cruise nears New Harbor, he makes the Adopt-A-Puffin pitch, showing what Project Puffin has evolved to 30 years after it first began. "Today you can adopt your own puffin. You don't have to feed it or anything. You can find out who it's dating and what kind of family life it has," Salmansohn cracks. Besides helping to fund Project Puffin, the program provides participants with information on a puffin, such as a particular bird's parentage, how many fish it can carry in its beak, if it's been seen "loafing," and details about its chosen mate. No one signed up to adopt a puffin on Salmansohn's cruise. But that's no indication of public interest in puffins. After Schubel's cruise, half a dozen people lined up to buy stuffed puffins, books on puffins and puffin T-shirts. "A lot of people are out to see the puffin. We try to get other birds. They're all focused on the puffins," Schubel said. Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:
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