One thing I had on this cruise that I didn’t have on any previous wildlife experience were binoculars – and they were a game changer. But as they slowly got used to the new feature of the boat, they settled back in the water, bobbing on the surface quite contentedly. As our boat got closer to the outcrop, puffins immediately took to the skies around us, their little wings flapping furiously as they sped by. I have to admit to being a bit disappointed when we first spied Eastern Egg Rock: it looked so small!Īfter seeing puffins at St Kilda and the Shiants, I’d been expecting towering cliffs – but it was interesting to learn that puffins could nest and burrow in these low-lying rocks, too. The first puffins began nesting on Eastern Egg Rock in 1981, and now the outcrop is home to around 172 pairs of puffins. But in 1973, the Project Puffin team began relocating puffin chicks to the island, using techniques like wooden decoy puffins to encourage adult birds to return – and slowly but surely, they did just that. ![]() By the late 1800s, puffins had disappeared from the island thanks to hunters. ![]() She explained that the puffins on Eastern Egg Rock, a seven-acre treeless island in Muscongus Bay, are part of the world’s first restored Atlantic puffin colony. With the coast receding behind us, our guide from the National Audubon Society’s Puffin Project took to the microphone to give us all a detailed explanation of the birds we would hopefully see in the next hour, and of course, the puffins we were all here for. So onward we sailed, towards the puffins. Minke whales could be underwater for 30 minutes, he explained, and can travel quickly in any direction there was no guarantee we’d see it again even if we stayed in that spot. It left the dock at 10am sharp, slowly motoring out into the harbour as the captain pointed out local sights around the town: the Boothbay Harbor Footbridge, little islands in the bay, and lighthouses like Permaquid Point and Burnt Island.įurther out at sea we spied the fin of a porpoise, and the captain even spotted the quick flash of a whale, but it didn’t resurface for the rest of us. ![]() It was everything a visitor would expect from the New England coast, and it put me in mind of what Disney might come up with if they were tasked with creating a coastal Maine-themed town in one of their parks.Īfter a drive from Portland and a quick harbour-side breakfast from Red Cup cafe, my husband and I boarded the boat, securing prime spots on the open top deck. The two-and-a-half hour puffin boat tour departed from Boothbay Harbor, a charming town full of large clapboard homes and well-kept gardens overlooking the water. As it turned out, I was one of only two people on the Cap’n Fish’s Audubon Puffin Cruise that day who had actually seen a puffin before everyone else was in for the delightful experience for the first time. Unless you’re lucky enough (like I have been) to live near puffin nesting sites in the likes of St Kilda, the Shiants, or Shetland, then a visit to coastal Maine is the easier option if you live in the USA. The open-air seating area on the top of the boat was full, and the solo traveller a few seats away – a grey-haired woman kitted out like she knew what to expect from the boat trip – was commenting on how flying from California to Maine was an easier journey in search of a puffin sighting than going to Scotland. “Well, it’s certainly easier than going all the way to Scotland to see them.”
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