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Author Topic: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20  (Read 94549 times)

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #540 on: January 11, 2024, 11:19:17 AM »


Lots of sweet babies  :-*

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #541 on: January 18, 2024, 11:16:42 AM »

Seal Island Gray Seal Pupping - pics by H20-Explorer





All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #542 on: January 22, 2024, 03:57:55 PM »


Posting for Peepspy

Cute! Baby Harp seal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cXLYAcQRSk

Papa in background, mama and baby


« Last Edit: January 22, 2024, 04:00:55 PM by Lani »
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #543 on: January 22, 2024, 04:00:18 PM »

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #544 on: January 25, 2024, 10:29:59 AM »





Hello  ;D
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #545 on: January 30, 2024, 11:52:48 AM »

Seal pups making friends and playing photos by CamOp MG







Photo by WinterRose
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #546 on: February 20, 2024, 11:29:51 AM »

One of the few Gray Seal pups remaining on Seal Island  :-*


Keeping watch on Seal Island  :-*
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #547 on: April 02, 2024, 11:00:53 AM »


Highlights from last year are shown on Cam   https://explore.org/livecams/puffins/puffin-burrow-cam

Pretty Easter card posted by MarquisdePuffinette  ;D



Posted in Chatroom:
Welcome to our new commenting platform!


*You need to have an Explore chat account to participate on the new explore.org chat platform, just log on with your current explore.org log in info. Disqus logins will not work with the new platform. If you have previously used a Disqus account, go to the top of the page and use the Join button to create an explore.org chat account.

If you have any questions, please refer this guide on how to use the features: https://media.explore.org/documents/explore-comment-system-how-to-12424-1706138223727-0.pdf

Please help us by filling out this form if you encounter an error with the new comment system. This form is for issues with the comment system only. If you have an issue with a live cam or the explore website, please email [email protected]

https://forms.gle/9eJB4ttaQDSETwbL6

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #548 on: April 06, 2024, 12:02:25 AM »


Atlantic puffins partner for life, this is how they show affection ;D

https://twitter.com/i/status/1776257185409888331
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #549 on: May 13, 2024, 11:16:37 AM »

Guess Who’s Back, Back Again!?

Hello, we’re baaaack! Welcome back to Seal Island, where the puffins hop, terns soar, and guillemots bask on the sun-warmed rocks. As you’ve seen by now, the Starlink connection to Seal Island has been restored – all because of the explore.org cam team’s hard work! We hear they were amazing island guests, as well! Thanks to them, we get to view Willie and Millie in Burrow #59 for this entire season, as well as our loafing ledge, exterior view, and Guillemot cam!

Coco (Seal Island supervisor) and the rest of the team has been hard at work conducting puffin productivity checks, also known as prod. Shockingly, over a third of our prod burrows already have an egg inside, which is pretty wild! It is fairly unusual to find so many eggs this early, but last year, the birds were also on the early side. And Willie and Millie are experienced parents by now, so it’s not too surprising that they are among the early ones!

In celebration of World Migratory Bird Day on Saturday, May 11, let’s talk migration! Maine has more than 130 species of migratory breeding birds, Atlantic Puffins being one of them. Migratory birds like puffins embark on journeys that span thousands of miles across oceans to their wintering or breeding ranges. After first swimming through the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Atlantic Puffins then go south to winter in waters around 200 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Finally, they go to New England's famed "coral canyons", vast underwater chasms and submerged mountain ranges deeper than the Canyon. But by May and June, puffins leave their watery rafts to nest and raise young on coastal islands such as Seal.

Welcome back to Seal Island, everyone! And Happy Mother's Day to our lovely Millie. 💐

A new season!  :-*



☀️A beautiful new day and a happy heart seeing our Willie tending to his lovely Millie🥰🙏❤️ Good morning everyone❣️ posted by Puffluv
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #550 on: May 20, 2024, 11:35:02 AM »



A new season at Atlantic Puffin Burrow cam - Dad Willi taking care of egg duties, while Mom Milli is taking a break.

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #551 on: May 22, 2024, 11:22:15 AM »

b]Atlantic Puffin Burrow cam - Puffintruders Abound![/b]

It sure has been a chaotic week, y’all. If you don't already know, a very persistent intruder is desperate to make Burrow #59 its home.

Atlantic Puffins in Maine usually lay eggs in burrows or crevices in mid-May. Puffins typically lay one white egg each year, but another may be laid if lost early into the season. These eggs average 60mm long, 42mm wide, 0.31mm shell thickness, and weigh 62 grams. As we see with Willie and Millie, both parents will incubate the egg while the other parent fishes. Puffins have two lateral brood patches, featherless spots with enhanced blood supply, to warm the egg while they sit horizontally to incubate it. The egg needs around 39-45 days of incubation.

Now: let’s talk intruder! This bold Puffin has been charging into Burrow #59 every single day since May 18, including this morning. It even pushed Willie and Millie’s egg out of the burrow on May 19. This bird, nicknamed “Wily” by some viewers for his scheming ways, is likely a male looking for a burrow of his own. It may be particularly aggressive because it is still early–plenty of time for it to have an egg of its own. In nature, it’s all about having that competitive advantage and passing your genes onto your offspring. And someone else’s egg would not be a welcoming sight in your new home!

Puffintruder pushing the egg.


Millie protecting egg, on high alert from intruder.


6:56am Willie in the doorway and Millie on the egg.
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #552 on: June 05, 2024, 12:09:03 PM »


Honey, I'm home! Willie checking in with Millie and eggbert. 💕
photo taken by spamela.


All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #553 on: June 11, 2024, 12:56:16 PM »

Yikes, Puffin Predators! Posted by Audubon Gloria MOD

Perhaps the greatest natural predator of the Atlantic Puffin is the Great Black-backed Gull. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, these massive gulls are known to catch puffins in mid-air and can easily barge into soil burrows. In Maine, deep rock crevices are where puffins call home and the gull populations are now at a more reasonable level, so it is less of an issue. However, gulls can still prevent puffins from recolonizing nesting areas and consume pufflings & eggs by plucking them from their burrows. Herring Gulls and Laughing Gulls are smaller gulls that steal the beakfuls of fish that puffins bring back for their young, or kleptoparasitism. To adapt to these behaviors, puffins will circle their island several times before making a mad dash to their burrows to avoid being robbed.

On the three Seabird Institute research islands with puffin colonies (Seal Island, Eastern Egg Rock, and Matinicus Rock), puffin predation is not an issue we see very often. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a threat. On the West Coast, Tufted and Horned Puffins are predated on by bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and other predators. Across all puffin species and even other seabirds, they face the kleptoparasitism (food stealing) by gulls.

Human disturbances are still some of the biggest threats puffins face. Historic hunting for food, feathers, and eggs has slowed down, but puffins are still found as gill net bycatch and can still be predated upon by introduced predators (such as rats and other mammals).

Gimme your food! A Laughing Gull chases an Atlantic Puffin, determined to get the beakful of fish. Photo: Jean Hall.
All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander

Lani

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Re: Puffin Burrow at Seal Island, Maine, USA 2019-20
« Reply #554 on: June 11, 2024, 12:59:34 PM »

Puffin Loafing Ledge-Razorbills. Photos posted by NWNature (PacificNW)



All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful; The Lord God made them all....Author: Cecil F. Alexander