Pull of the puffins

By SETH HARKNESS, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

E-mail this story to a friend

Staff photo by Fred J. Field Puffins share a rock on Machias Seal Island. "Everything about these birds is amusing," says one veteran birdwatcher.

SLIDESHOW See a slide show of photos from Machias Seal Island ABOUT OUR SERIES Think you've seen all the sights of Maine? Maybe not. . . .This week we'll take you to some of the state's more remarkable - and sometimes over- looked - wonders. Here's an itinerary: Today: Machias Seal Island You can get there from here - and it's worth it Monday: Old Sow Whirlpool Tuesday: Swan Island Wednesday: Pineland Thursday: Coos Canyon Friday: L.C. Bates Museum Saturday: Moxie Falls To top of story

MACHIAS SEAL ISLAND — If it weren't for the puffins, few people other than lobstermen and lighthouse keepers would make the trip out to this treeless, crescent-shaped island at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. But the most comical of seabirds exert a strong pull. In the summer months, 3,000 pairs of puffins return to breed on Machias Seal Island and the birdwatchers flock here as well.

The island offers more than a glimpse of the largest colony of Atlantic Puffins in the United States. It is a place where visitors can sit in blinds only a few feet from the small black and white birds whose clown-like presence seems at odds with the foggy seascapes they inhabit. The puffins are close enough to count the silvery herring they clutch in their colorful beaks and to observe their ungraceful landings. The birds even perch on top of the blinds, slapping the plywood overhead with their oversized orange feet.

Even veteran birdwatchers may smile at these displays of cartoonish charisma. "Everything about these birds is amusing," said Paul Gardner, an archaeologist from Ohio who traveled to Machias Seal Island earlier this month to add Atlantic Puffins to his list of bird sightings.

Machias Seal Island lies 10 miles southeast of Cutler and 20 miles east of Jonesport. Small charter boats make daily trips from both these ports in summer, and another captain steams over from the nearby island of Grand Manan in New Brunswick.

In addition to puffins, the island is also a breeding ground for thousands of arctic terns and razorbill auks and smaller numbers of murres and storm petrels.

At the height of breeding season in June and July, only 30 visitors per day are allowed to set foot on Machias Seal Island. Two lighthouse keepers live on the island year-round, alternating monthlong shifts. During the summers, four students from the University of New Brunswick also live on the island doing research on seabirds.

Aside from the swarms of birds, one of the first things visitors notice after stepping onto the kelp-covered rocks at the island's shore is a Canadian flag fluttering beside the lighthouse.

Machias Seal Island has long been disputed territory, claimed by both the United States and Canada. Though Britain and later Canada have maintained a lighthouse there since the early 1800s, the United States has never ceded ownership, pointing to ambiguity in the treaty that defines a short section of the international boundary in this region. Lobstermen from both nations set their pots near the island and refer to these waters as the "gray zone."

Few people may care about who owns the barren 20-acre island, but those who do care passionately. John Norton of Jonesport has made a living ferrying people out to Machias Seal Island since the 1950s. His late father, Barna, began the business with a wooden lobster boat in 1939.

The stern of Norton's boat, the Chief, lists "Machias Seal Island, U.S.A." as its home port. Norton, a short bearded man who wore red, white and blue suspenders and bedroom slippers on a recent trip to the island, said he has had some run-ins with Canadian authorities over the years about his bringing visitors out to see the birds.

One time in the late 1980s, he said, officers with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police met him on the island and threatened to arrest him, but he managed to diffuse the situation with a handshake.

"Welcome to the United States," Norton said he greeted the Canadian police. "Are you here on vacation?"

The squabbles have quieted down in recent years, Norton said, and these days the health of some of the bird colonies that breed on Machias Seal Island may be more of a concern than the island's ownership.

Most years, island visitors are greeted by hundreds of squawking arctic terns, 3-ounce birds that migrate seasonally between the Earth's poles. The birds protect their nests by diving and pecking at the tops of visitors' heads. Charter boat captains provide their guests with sticks which, when held high, offer the terns another target.

This summer, though, there was no need to pass out sticks. After two poor nesting years in 2004 and 2005, the terns had an even worse season this year.

Predation by gulls and cold spring rains killed most of this year's crop of chicks, causing the tern colony to abandon Machias Seal Island in late June, according to Alex Bond, one of the graduate students from the University of New Brunswick doing bird research.

In the big picture, Bond said, the population of arctic terns is healthy as is the puffins'. Though relatively rare in the Gulf of Maine, puffins are found in tremendous numbers in Iceland, where they also appear on the menu, and other parts of the North Atlantic. But if the terns were to disappear from Machias Seal Island, Bond said it might affect other colonies because the terns' aggressive behavior protects all the nesting birds from predators.

Bond said the researchers are sharing their findings with Canadian wildlife officials who have not yet decided whether to take any action to protect the terns.

For now, at least, the graduate student said the puffins of Machias Seal Island show no signs of distress. The birds returned to the island from their North Atlantic feeding grounds in mid-April and took up nesting sites in rocky burrows along the shore.

During the trip out to the island earlier this month, hundreds of puffins mingled on the rocks in front of one of the blinds and made their eerie call, like the whine of a distant chain saw.

Among the puffins stood smaller groups of razorbills with heads so black one could not see their eyes. The birds seemed solemn in contrast to the awkward, ever-jostling puffins.

In a few weeks, the puffins would fly back out to sea. Before they left, though, a fortunate few would still have a chance to sit among these birds and see them in their own world.

For anyone who has had this experience, one thing seems clear. Regardless of what flag flies beside the lighthouse or the exact wording of a 200-year-old treaty, Machias Seal Island belongs to the puffins.

Staff Writer Seth Harkness can be contacted at 282-8225 or at:

sharkness@pressherald.com