Puffin Party! (..And Other Birds, Too)  
(All photos copyright Juliet Lamont 2024; apologies for lower resolution - the full photo files are so large they would make this site freeze for most users, particularly if on smartphones or notebooks/pads. But if you click on a photo you will see a bigger version.)

Puffins are a bit of an obsession for us - along with loons, wolves, cats...oh heck - all wildlife and birds and insects, microscopic to "charismatic megafauna."  But I (Juliet) digress (a frequent failing when I get on this whole subject).

However, Maine has a remarkable opportunity to view puffins up close, on Machias Seal Island, one hour off the coast of the downeast town of Cutler.  The island is truly "for the birds" - breeding and rearing habitat for Atlantic Puffins, Arctic Terns, Razorbills, Common murres (including the striking Bridled Murre sub-species, various gulls, Eider Ducks, a few Gannets, and other occasional drop-ins. It's a testament to both the importance of providing undisturbed habitat for sensitive bird species, as well as a great success story for bringing back populations on the brink.

View Machias Seal Island Video Clip (click link to YouTube here)

The only human inhabitants are bird researchers and rotating lighthouse keepers who are brought in/out via helicopter, once a month.  (Somewhat disappointingly, neither the keepers nor the lighthouse actually rotate, or at least not while we were watching). 

Only one "puffin tour" visitor boat is allowed per day (Bold Coast Charter Company); the January online sign-ups for the full summer season of these trips sell out in - I kid you not - under one hour.  The signup period has a California start time of 5 am. If you blink you miss your chance.  However, if you're intrigued by this cut-throat online competition - and more importantly, this trip - we've listed a few travel ideas at the end of this post, based on our experiences. 

Once you arrive, there are strict regulations about time on the island, which is limited to about two hours in a bird blind, accessed by short wooden walkways.  Walking to the blinds is an adventure in itself: Arctic Terns nest in the grasses and ground next to the boardwalks, and they are fierce protectors, dive bombing anything and anyone they see as a threat.  This would include humans (smart birds).  So you are given a stick to hold above your head as you walk, which bears the brunt of the terns' missile-like dives.  Notably, their defense strategy is so effective that other birds will nest nearby to take advantage of the tactics employed by these aerial warriors.

Arctic Terns can range from 11 to 16 inches in body length, while their long, elegant wings stretch 25 to 30 inches across. They are present across the globe, and will migrate from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back (roughly 25,000 miles!) to breed in the Arctic regions and just south (such as coastal Maine), and then feed and rest in the Antarctic summer (NWF website).  The Ocean Conservancy cites one statistic that each Arctic Tern can travel an average of - wait for it - 1.8 million miles in a lifetime. Audubon has a marvelous species migration map ("Species Explorer") which shows animated data about their global migration patterns.  

They are gorgeous, elegant birds in flight, and their nests shelter colorful, mottled eggs which will hatch in late June, after about three weeks of incubation by both parents. Another three to four weeks of feeding, and they are ready to fledge, and prepare for the long migration south to Antarctica with their parents. They will remain in Antarctica for their first two years, before migrating back north to their very same birthplace. (Audubon Seabird Institute)

Unfortunately, like many other species, these birds are vulnerable to a variety of challenges. Maine's Arctic Tern colonies face the greatest threats from gulls that prey on chicks and eggs, as well as competing for nesting habitat (Audubon Seabird Institute).  The colony size on Machias Seal Island plummeted in the early 2000s due to gull predation; no chicks fledged between 2006 and 2015, and breeding adult pairs also plummeted. Gull control activities (ouch) have helped the population to recover, with over 300 nesting pairs now estimated to breed there. (ResearchGate 2021) 

Globally, Arctic Tern populations face a number of human-induced threats: they collide with power lines and communication towers, as well as suffering the effects of light pollution, which can disorient their migration routes, and lead to collisions with buildings (please use "dark sky compliant lighting" everyone!). Water quality deterioration - particularly sewage, pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizers - and climate change with its accompanying warming of sea surface temperatures, are ecosystem-level challenges that increasingly affect their food sources, as well as availability and quality of habitat. (Audubon Species Explorer). 

But this island is one of those marvelous refuge sites where they - and other seabirds - can thrive. Once you're inside the bird blinds, you are able to view and photograph birds that may be just a few feet away.  It is magic to follow their movements, interactions, conversations.  All about them, their world - not ours.

Two-person bird blind. You can see the birds aren't very concerned about the people inside. The puffins actually pitter-patter continually across the roof while you're photographing. Utterly charming.

Beyond Arctic Terns, the Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills, and Murres comprise the vast majority of birds on the island.  We'll start with the puffins, because that's probably why you've read this far.  Puffins are ridiculously photogenic, and captivating to watch. We're not sure what was happening when these birds came onto the evolutionary design platform, but they may be the early inspirations for Disney, or perhaps Mattel.  Because they are impossibly cute.  And you really can't get a bad photo of a puffin, though it may be out of focus due to shaking belly and hands while you're laughing at their antics.

Atlantic Puffins are one of the most gregarious and endearing birds on the Maine coast. But we almost lost them. Hunted for food, feathers, and eggs, the once abundant Maine populations imploded in the 1800s, reduced to one nesting island site.  It took more than 100 years before they would start to recover, thanks to the scientist Stephen Kress, who founded the Maine-based Project Puffin to bring them back.

Focusing on a historically successful nesting site, Eastern Egg Rock, Kress introduced puffins to the site in 1973, in the hope of catalyzing a new breeding population there.  In 1973, he brought pufflings (puffin chicks - you can't make these names up, I promise) from Newfoundland to the nesting site, where Audubon researchers fed and raised them in artificially constructed burrows. Once they fledged, it would be two to three years before they might return to their birthplace, if they survived and/or found their way back.  In 1977, to the joy of the science team, the first ones returned. (Audubon Seabird Institute)

Since then, the Puffin Project has developed recovery techniques that have been used across the country not only for puffins, but other vulnerable birds as well. In particular, Kress pioneered a method of luring puffins to the island using artificial puffin decoys, to take advantage of the very strong "social attraction" behavior in puffin colonies.  The idea was that real puffins would see these decoys and think, "hey - that's a puffin colony! Maybe I'll check it out!"  And indeed they did.  In 1981, Kress and his researchers documented the first puffin bringing anchovies to a nesting burrow, and since then, puffins have had a steady resurgence along Maine coastal islands. (Audubon Seabird Institute) 

Atlantic Puffins are relatively small birds, 13 inches in size, inhabiting coastal waters and open ocean across Eastern Canada, New England, and the mid-Atlantic. They sport an iconic round body and short tail, with vibrantly colored stripes of red, orange, and grey across their bills. They are proficient swimmers and divers, using wings for power, and their feet for steering. Parents - often monogamous over several breeding seasons - usually produce only one egg, and both help to incubate and rear their young, feeding them with small fish like herring and sandeel. The chicks leave the nest after about 5 - 6 weeks, and fly directly out to the open ocean, where they spend the major portion of the year. (All About Birds)

Like many other social birds, Atlantic Puffins form large colonies, and build burrows within feet of their neighbors.  There are estimated to be around 1000 puffin pairs in the Machias Seal Island colony! They chatter and call constantly among each other; there are some terrific audio clips at the Audubon Seabird Institute website using little-known scientific terminology such as "chainsaw snores" and "sputtering snores." Seriously.  And they groom and nuzzle, leaving territorial or other disputes to a minimum.  We could learn something here.

Delightful as the puffins are, we were equally entranced by their larger relatives, the Razorbills (Phil calls them the bad-a%$ "goths" of the avian community), as well as the Murres.  Last time we visited the island - in 2019 - we also saw one of the few nesting Gannets, which spent the afternoon next to our blind.  This summer we only got a fly-by, but they are stunning every time.

Razorbills are larger than puffins, generally about 17 inches in length - about the size of a crow - with a wingspan of 25 to 28 inches.  The breeding adults are "tuxedo-colored," sporting black and white plumage, and a notable thin white band across their beaks.  When it opens, what a surprise! Bright yellow inside!

Razorbills, like puffins, often mate for life, and only have one egg per season, with parents sharing incubation and feeding responsibilities. They can dive up to 330 feet underwater to catch fish, using the same wing-based propulsion for swimming as their puffin counterparts. Once chicks have hatched and fledged, Razorbills head south and out to the open ocean, where they spend most of the year. (All About Birds)

Wings of birds are not only works of physics, but also works of art. And the details of every avian feature - bill to feather to feet - are displays of breathtaking patterns and grace.  These features can also play a part in courtship.  According to the Cornell Ornithological Laboratory website, males will "attract females by what is called the 'ecstatic' display, in which they raise their bills vertically and call, then bring the bill to the breast, showing off the bright yellow interior of the mouth."  Females can be picky; they may watch a few of these displays from suitors, and then groom and touch bills when they finally take an interest. (All About Birds)

Common Murres are the other predominant species nesting on Machias Seal Island, and again, are relatives of puffins.  They are roughly 15 to 17 inches in size, with wingspans of 25 to 28 inches. Their coloring is a softer black and white - really a deep brown - with thick, long beaks.  They are also monogamous, and may use the same, exact nesting site year after year!  They are built for both diving and flight - the former to catch fish, the latter to find foraging sites, as well as supporting long migration flights to the open ocean, where they spend all of their non-breeding/nesting months. (All About Birds) 

Their gangly, long bodies look awkward when waddling along rocks - and the splayed "landing gear" (above) is perhaps not the epitome of grace.  But a simple curve of the head, an outstretched wing, and suddenly they are elegant and mesmerizing.  The one below (on the left) brought back a much-envied sea tidbit...moments later the other birds mobbed it to try and take away that prize.  No one was harmed except the fish.

The Bridled Murre - a sub-species of the Common Murre - has an exquisite white "spectacle" feature around its eye and brow, the result of a mutation in evolutionary time.  If we could reproduce this in our own eyewear, we'd make a million dollars. 

Both Razorbills and Common Murres are currently listed as fairly stable in global populations, but for both species, hunting and egg collection continues to take a toll.  And now with the additional pressures of warming oceans and associated changing food webs and distribution of prey, there is real concern that these species could face catastrophic challenges in the near future. 

(Narrative here onwards is Phil!)

 The island has also hosted a single pair of Gannets for the past few years.  These are not the brightest birds: every year they choose the same bare rock to lay an egg. The rock is not flat, so every year the egg rolls off the edge and is crushed.  We suggested that the researchers could glue a little ledge onto the rock so the egg would stay in place, but they declined. A pity. Maybe next time the Gannets will choose a different spot. 

 

As for the island itself, it has a pretty interesting history. It is the only remaining disputed land between Canada and the United States. Every now and then there is some reason that the dispute becomes relevant at some low level, and then the two governments take it up for consideration for a while, but in the end nobody really cares all that much and the status quo prevails, as it has for the past four hundred years or so. (The Canadian claim is based on a land grant in 1621).  The dispute became relevant in 1983, when the Canadian Wildlife Service put a quota on visitorship to the island, restricting it to a maximum of 25 visitors per day to limit the impact not he birds.  A Mainer named Barna Norton had been taking small numbers of visitors to the island for years, but at some time in 1983 he tried to take his visitors to the island only to be told that there were already too many visitors on the island and he would not be allowed to land. He landed anyway, According to an Atlas Obscura article:  

One day that summer, an official did try to stop Barna from bringing over some of his passengers. He responded by brandishing an oar, and yelling, “Come any closer and I’ll flatten you.” Barna, as you might expect, contacted Congress to explain his problem. He got back a letter from a State Department employee assuring him “that Machias Seal Island is part of the United States” and that “You have every right to ignore any regulations that Canada pretends to set.” From then on, Barna carried this letter with him in a waterproof binder... 

By this point, each tour had become a kind of rhetorical exercise. “Every day that Barna went out there he carried his flag,” says Davis. Most days, it was a miniature Stars and Stripes, mounted on the ferrule of his umbrella or the brim of his hat. But around once a year, he brought a full-sized version, paraded it around the island, and posed for pictures with it in front of the flagpole bearing the Maple Leaf. The hailing port of his boat read “Machias Seal Island, U.S.A.” (Occasionally, his rivals would tweak him back—one puffin researcher told the Toronto National Post that he used to mark tern nests with tiny Canadian flags, so Norton “would have to walk past about 100 of these things.”)

The current situation, which has prevailed for a while, is that Canada remains a permanent presence on the island in the form of the aforementioned rotating lighthouse keepers, while researchers and visitors from the U.S. are allowed to come and go in limited numbers. 

Travel Ideas/Tips:

Cutler is waaaay "down east," almost at the Canadian border. Machias is the closest bigger town (about 20 minute drive), while Lubec - actually at the border, and the easternmost town in the United States - is about 25-30 minutes away.  Both have a few restaurants, and places to stay (very basic Machias visitor guide here; more customized local visitor info for Lubec here).  Lubec is the gateway to the Canadian crossing, via Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge.  The coastal area around here is gorgeous; Downeast Coastal Conservancy has some terrific trail options if you want to spend a day or two walking, birding, or even biking backroads, beyond the puffin trip day. 

We stayed in Machias simply because it was a bit closer to get to/from coming from Portland or anywhere in southern Maine.  If you aren't in peak summer months, we'd highly advise stopping in the Acadia region as you come up, or when you return back south/west.  The main section of Acadia National Park at Bar Harbor, the Schoodic Peninsula, or if you're more ambitious, Isle au Haut, are all spectacular in good weather.  Great biking and hiking and food.

Machias is trying to build its local economy, and a part of that is heightening visibility around nature and the outdoors. Fortunately, that also includes improving food choices, and some good places to stay.  We love the Margaretta Inn, because it's simple, very clean and "eco-fresh," and reasonable rates. It's motel-style, but set back from the main road.  Has refrigerators and Keurig-coffee, which was really nice for me (Juliet), since I'm a vegetarian and can't always count on finding good food and produce in more out-of-the-way places - so I bring basics with me.

That said, there is a new farm-to-table operation, West Branch Farms, which includes a farm, restaurant, and now accommodations, all about 4 miles down a rural road out of Machias.  We only learned about it this year - and they were/are still building some of their structures - but their morning coffee/breakfast cafe was lovely, and their dinner offering delicious.  Plus we love supporting places like this.  Local, organic ("regenerative farming"), jobs for local residents, and more. We didn't try their cabins, but guessing they're going to be great.  And finally, after a couple of years of fairly limited food options in Machias itself, there's a new local brewpub, Mason's Brewing Company, that has good home-cooked fare and locally-brewed beer: curly fries and crispy cauliflower snacks, to salads, to burgers (veggie burger substitute always available).  And nice atmosphere.

If you have specific questions you can always e-mail us or leave a comment here!