A Plethora of Puffins
Wonders await in the rich environment surrounding Colby’s Island Campus
Just three miles from Colby’s Island Campus in Muscongus Bay, nestled on a craggy, seven-acre island, lies the world’s first restored seabird colony.
The Atlantic puffin—nearly extinct by the late 1960s—is now thriving on Eastern Egg Rock at the Allan D. Cruickshank Wildlife Sanctuary.
The small island is home to or visited by more than 100 species of birds but perhaps none are as well known or documented as the puffin. The sanctuary is owned by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and managed by the National Audubon Society.
The foot-long birds, notable for their eye-catching black, orange, and yellow bills, breed from April through August. Restoration of the species began on Eastern Egg Rock in 1973, after nesting populations had been lost to overharvesting of eggs and overhunting of adults, among other pressures. By 1981 five pairs of puffins were breeding there. As of 2017, more than 170 pairs of puffins were nesting on Eastern Egg.
In the summer months the puffin can be found anywhere from northern France to the Gulf of Maine while its winter territory expands as far south as North Carolina and the Mediterranean Sea. Some studies suggest that puffins can cover nearly 5,000 miles of the ocean in a single year.
These colorful seabirds are among the natural wonders that abound in the rich marine environment surrounding the Island Campus.
