Looking for the Sea Parrot – Toque & Canoe

By Carol Patterson

Even if you’ve never held a pair of binoculars, it’s hard not to feel excitement upon spotting a puffin in its natural habitat.

As a nature-loving photographer, I openly admit that I’m completely enchanted by these expressive “parrots of the sea” and their delightful behaviors.

I’ve crawled to the edge of rocky cliffs in Iceland to observe puffins from a high vantage point.

I’ve drifted in a boat through Newfoundland and Labrador’s Witless Bay Ecological Reserve to witness North America’s largest Atlantic puffin colony.

Today, I’m traveling with Sea Watch Tours to Machias Seal Island in New Brunswick, where 5,000 breeding pairs of Atlantic puffins reside—typically lifelong mates that can live around 25 years. I’m eager to get even closer to these incredible birds.

After a 90-minute ocean ride from Grand Manan Island, our lobster boat transitions into a birdwatching vessel and slows down in the dense fog.

Steep rock faces gradually emerge, while the sky becomes alive with seabirds soaring, darting, and screeching in every direction, as if engaged in vital tasks.

And perhaps they are. After all, thousands of baby puffins, known as “pufflings,” are anxiously waiting for fish to help them gain weight for their winter at sea, perched on the small teardrop-shaped island below.

Bobbing beside our boat in the water, I enjoy a close view of several adult puffins. Their triangular, carrot-orange beaks add vibrant splashes of color to the cool blue sea.

Scientists have discovered that their beaks are fluorescent, glowing in a way that is invisible to the human eye without a UV light. They also possess spiny protrusions that enable the birds to hold onto dozens of small fish simultaneously.

In a flurry of feathers, one nearby puffin begins to flap its wings vigorously before launching off the surface of the water, demonstrating an enthusiasm that is more charming than graceful.

Although puffins are excellent swimmers, diving as deep as 60 meters to catch small fish like capelin and herring, they must flap their wings 300 to 400 times per minute to fly, working hard to lift their stout, football-sized bodies off the ground.

They may not take to the skies with the grace of a raptor or the speed of a hummingbird, but they radiate a certain plucky spirit.

My world can never have too many puffins.

Watching them waddle over rocks, I see cartoonish clowns in tuxedos, and it brings a smile to my face that warms my heart.

Professional travel writer and photographer Carol Patterson was hosted by Tourism New Brunswick, which did not review or approve her story before publication.

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