Puffin Stuffin’

Another new life bird from a recent trip to Maine.  This is an Atlantic Puffin.  They generally stay out to sea, but hang around shore to nest.  We took a Nature Cruise tour out of Bar Harbor.  The trip lasted about 2 ½ hours, as we had to go up to Petit Manaan island, part of Petit Manaan National Wildlife Refuge.  The puffins nest on this island.  The boat takes you reasonably close to the island.  If you just want to see puffins, a pair of binoculars helps.  I had my very hand holdable 400mm lens, so that worked out pretty well.  Of course, the boat was rocking, the wind blowing, the sun at a bad angle, and the little puffins come across the water out of nowhere, but I still managed a couple of nice in-flight images.  These are cute little birds.  They can really stuff their beaks with fish to take back to the little ones.