An Atlantic Puffin Taking a Break
Eric Bowles spots one bird making time for a little grooming.
By the early 1990s, Atlantic Puffins nearly disappeared from islands off the East Coast, due to hunters’ taste for its eggs and meat, but hunting bans and conservation efforts like Audubon’s Project Puffin have brought them back, rebounding from 100 pairs on islands off the coast of Maine to more than 1,000 pairs, including this one taking care of an itch, in more than 30 years.
This image was a Top 100 photo from the 2011 Audubon Magazine Photography Awards. To see all of the photos, click here.