Puffins, those big headed, tuxedoed seabirds are so irresistibly cute, aren’t they? Now you can coo at your leisure with Audubon's latest live cameras: One zooms in on an island off Maine’s coast where researchers, led by Steve Kress, Audubon’s Seabird Restoration program director and vice president for bird conservation, are restoring Atlantic puffin breeding colonies. Look closely, and you’ll notice that puffins aren’t the only ones basking on this rocky outcropping—you might spy razorbills, black guillemots, or other species hanging out.
And if the first camera isn’t voyeuristic enough, another one lets you journey inside a puffin burrow where a chick has already hatched (lucky for you if you see it; so far, I’ve only come fact-to-face—or face-to-tail—with a parent).
View from burrow cam.
This is the second installment of Audubon Live Cams, a partnership between Audubon and explore.org. The first featured ospreys, whose chicks have since hatched and grown quite a bit.
Related links:
Take a Puffin Home: A photographer's images help aquaint auks with those who want to adopt them.
The Puffin Man: A project that began modestly on a small island in Maine is today helping to save seabirds all over the world.