In Search of Puffins - Witless Bay, Newfoundland

Late in the afternoon, we headed south about 30 minutes from St. John’s down the coast to Witless Bay. We’d made reservations for a puffin tour for the next morning and we were praying for good weather. We wanted to be close to the tour departure dock and we found a perfect camping spot for the night at the Witless Bay Visitor Centre.

The Witless Bay Visitor Centre definitely put us in the mood for puffins!

THE MIST IN Witless Bay made for a magical scene.

There are a myriad of tours available in the area and it was hard narrowing down which one to choose. The tour prices were all in the same range, but we ended up choosing a smaller company with a smaller boat (Molly Bawn Tours), rather than wrestling with 100+ other people for a good photo-taking spot on the rail on a larger boat.

We opted to go with Molly Bawn Whale & Puffin tours on a small boat

The day dawned gray, overcast and raw and we dressed warmly, anticipating a cold ride. The boat left promptly at 10am and we headed to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. The Reserve is home to innumerable nesting seabirds, murres, cormorants, kittiwakes, storm petrels and most importantly an estimated 260,000 pairs of puffins… the largest Atlantic puffin colony in North America. 260,000 pairs! That’s over half a million puffins!

Witless Bay Ecological Reserve Photo credit: V. Plat

According to All About Birds, puffins are ‘the clowns of the sea’ or ‘sea parrots’. They are pretty  entertaining to watch. Sharply contracting their black and white bodies, their beaks are large like a parrot and during the mating season brightly colored. Using their wings as flippers, they dive down into the water to catch fish  and when their bills are full, they attempt to fly off. Many times their bills are so heavy, they can’t fly at all and they just skip across the water, wings flailing, in a rather comical fashion.

Some puffin facts:

The Atlantic Puffin is the official bird of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Puffins, like many seabirds, are long-lived, averaging 30+ years. The oldest recorded puffin was banded as a chick and lived to 41 years old. It’s thought they may live longer, but it’s only recently that bands can last 40+ years to keep track of them.

It is believed that puffins mate for life, but they do not begin the mating process until they are 3–6 years old. When nesting, female puffins lay just one egg per breeding year with an incubation period of forty-two days. Puffin chicks are called pufflIngs.

Puffins make their homes in crevices between rocks or use their webbed feet to dig burrows. The hillsides of the island were covered in puffin burrows.

They can dive ~100-200 feet (30-60m) to catch their prey. They eat small fish like capelin and herring and can hold up to 61 fish in its bill at a time.

That’s a mouthful! Photo credit: Charles J. Sharp

Our boat had a total of 12 passengers aboard plus the captain and a dedicated biologist, Jeannine, who provided both the safety spiel as well as the color commentary and a great deal of information about seabirds and marine mammals along the way.

The show began almost immediately with puffins all around the boat and humpback whale spouts in the distance. We never got any closer to the whales, but the puffins were all around us. Puffins are shy and as the boat approached, they’d flap their little wings furiously and take off. If they couldn’t manage a take-off, they’d skitter across the water.

They’re tinier than we expected… only 8-10 inches tall and maybe 12” from beak to stubby tail while floating on the water.

Puffin-apalooza

They were difficult to photograph since the boat was rocking and the puffins were in constant motion and they’re fast little critters.

Despite being very cold on this raw, windy day, we were pleased that we saw so many puffins. I wish the tour could have been longer, but then we always want more of good things. So glad we took the tour.

Next time? The most easterly lighthouse in North America, The Dildo Brewing Company (yup, that’s right) and driving the beautiful Baccalieu Coastal Drive.