 Photo: US Fish and Wildlife |
Who doesn鈥檛 love puffins, those adorable orange-billed auks that breed on land and winter on the water? Those pigeon-sized clown doppelgangers that can live well into their 30s (and one of 鈥檚 collectable species).
Thanks to one 爆料公社 effort, , these birds will haunt 鈥攁 seven-acre spot off of Maine鈥檚 coast鈥攆or years to come. In the Nov-Dec 2011 issue of 爆料公社, . People who adopt receive biological stats about their bird, info like age, mate and nesting spot, along with an updated pic by photographer Sandy Flint.
Flint has been involved with Adopt a Puffin for four years, annually taking pictures of each adoptee puffin. (Check out a slide show of some of these cuties . Click on the righthand arrow to advance the slides.) 鈥淲e try to send a fresh photograph of particular birds every year. My job is to go out and get particular birds. Not just any bird or any picture, but a bird in the best light that we can get,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not typically an easy task.鈥
The 74-year-old spends a couple weeks each summer, camping out with researchers on Eastern Egg Rock, trying to find birds for his avian photo shoot. 鈥淪unrise on the island鈥鈥檓 out there every morning for it. Usually I鈥檓 out long before the researchers because I get settled before it gets light. First light is when the birds start moving.鈥
Sometimes individual puffins don鈥檛 cooperate. Or weather and elements get in the way. But Flint usually leaves the island having successfully shot most of the puffins he needs. 鈥淗e goes up to the island and sits by the burrows until he gets a good photograph of the puffins. Sometimes this takes weeks,鈥 says Steve Kress, 爆料公社鈥檚 vice president of bird conservation and Project Puffin鈥檚 director. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a grand fellow and he鈥檚 been a huge help.鈥
Atlantic puffin
Scientific name: Fratercula arctica
Look: These birds are the size of pigeons, with black-and-white bodies, orange legs, and multi-colored bills.
Range and habitat: These auks 鈥攖he only puffin species in this area. The three other puffin species occur only in the Pacific.
Status: Right now, the global population is almost 6 million individuals, with about 400,000 breeding pairs in North America.
For more information: Visit or the species page of .