Less obscure than say, a storm-petrel, the one seabird most people have probably heard of, either through popular culture or natural history films, is the puffin. The clowns of the sea. Their brightly colored toucan-like bills and ornate head gear demand attention. As with the rest of the alcids, puffins are restricted to the northern hemisphere, where three species occur and breed in crevices on offshore islands throughout the high latitudes. The Atlantic Ocean contains a single species, appropriately named the Atlantic puffin, and on the Pacific side we have two species, the tufted and horned puffins. With nearly identical ranges, tufted puffins venture slightly further south, with colonies as far down as the Farallon Islands off central California. Horned puffins remain north of Vancouver Island in Canada, although occasional sightings do occur further south. Both Pacific species are a common sight during the summer months on St. Paul. By-the-way, it's been in the high 30's and low 40's this past week, with wind gusts from the frigid Bering Sea at times up to 40 knots...so I use the term 'summer' rather loosely.
Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + 1.4x, ISO-200 f/5.6 @ 1/2000 sec.
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