Cooped Up? Photos Of This Puffin Island Will Make You Feel Free

Straddling the United States and Canada, the small and wondrous Machias Seal Island entices visitors with the clamorous calls of thousands of seabirds gathered together in harmony. A visit to the Machias Seal Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary is extraordinary, where you can witness one of the most significant nesting colonies of Atlantic puffins along the Northeastern coast. 

Thousands of these charming birds — whose name derives from their puffed-up appearance — can be seen foraging in the waters, caring for their young and rubbing beaks with loved ones atop the barren, tree-less rock. Puffins share their precious space with Arctic terns, razorbills, storm-petrels, gannets and common murres. 

Located 10 miles from Maine and New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island, this tear-drop shaped islet sanctuary in disputed waters between the Gulf of Maine and the lower Bay of Fundy, is overseen by the Canadian Wildlife Service and Canadian Coast Guard. It spans just one mile long and a few hundred feet wide, with a sole working lighthouse as its focal point. Seaweed strewn edges reveal themselves as the tides rise and fall with the ebb and flow of the Bay of Fundy.  

Prime Time Puffin Viewing 

Summer is the ideal time to catch the most action — terns fiercely protecting their nests, razorbills canoodling with their lovers, common murres foppishly displaying their black-and-white plumage and puffins carrying tiny fish lined up in their colorful bills to their babies hiding in burrows and rock crevices. 

Atlantic puffins spend the winter in the open sea, returning to the offshore islands along the North Atlantic coast to breed in the warmer months. An estimated 5,000 pairs of puffins, 1,000 pairs of razorbills and 500 pairs of murres call Machias Seal Island home during peak breeding season. 

Visitors are only allowed to set foot on the island once a year, from mid-June to July during breeding season, when tourist boats from Cutler, Maine and Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick bring puffin enthusiasts and nature lovers on half-day excursions. 

Up Close With Puffins 

The fog-bound Machias Seal Island reveals itself gently as you inch closer on your voyage. The sole lighthouse, manned by the Canadian Government, a few small buildings and viewing blinds stand amidst a green meadow in the middle. Visitors stepping onto the island are asked to follow the boardwalk, carrying red or yellow-tipped poles above their heads to keep terns trying to protect their young at bay.  

Once on the main platform situated on higher ground, you get a 360-degree view of buzzing colonies of a variety of birds on rocky outcroppings and wind-battered shores. Inside one of the viewing blinds (each fitting up to four people with small windows that open towards the sea and the lighthouse), you are free to savor each moment, and immerse yourself in the experience.

A few feet away, these clowns of the sea go about their business, curiously scanning their surroundings as they balance on slick rocks with their orange webbed feet, calling for their partners, socializing with friends, flapping their wings as fast as hummingbirds, or diving into the waters for sustenance. 

As you click away on your cameras and phones you’ll feel a jolt inside the small wooden blind, as a group of birds lands on the roof, unbeknownst to those underneath marveling at their beauty up close. 

If you’ve never heard the sound of thousands of seabirds at once, you are in for a rare treat. Some say it’s akin to the buzzing of a weed wacker or a lawn mower. Others just marvel at the vibrant energy that hangs in the air. This is nature at its purest and, as the hour passes by, you are transported back to a simpler time, when birds felt safe and lived out their lives in peace. 

Getting There 

Sea Watch Tours, located at Seal Cove on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, offers daily tours to Machias Seal Island in June and July (weather permitting). Tickets are limited and only available for purchase in mid-January. Note that they are often sold out within a few hours. On average, the boat takes 30 passengers: 15 passengers receive permits to access the island, and the rest to circle the islet on a skiff for encounters of  diving birds diving and sunbathing seals. Either way, you are in for an educational and enriching endeavor you will not soon forget.