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Puffins! No luck. So, where and when did you see them?

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Puffins! No luck. So, where and when did you see them?

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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 06:46 AM
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Puffins! No luck. So, where and when did you see them?

Hello

I am home from Scotland and was too late for the Puffins. I bought a lovely water color though. Ha!

Anyway, maybe next year. I know June is Puffin time in Scotland, but if I were to go ANYWHERE else, where would you suggest and when? How was your own experience there?

Thank you
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 06:50 AM
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I know this is a Europe forum, but we saw puffins in Alaska, around the Kenai Peninsula. We were there for 10 days in mid-August one year and saw many in the waters around Kenai.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 06:52 AM
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Newfoundland in July.

I wasn't quite as lucky as some other Fodorites, but did see thousands in flight an at a distance from a boat. Elliston, Newfoundland has a viewing area on land, but they didn't come as close on the day I was there as they did for others.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 06:54 AM
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What hikrchick said applies to me.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 07:14 AM
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I've seen puffins in Iceland and England (near Scarbough)..maybe called Bimpton Cliffs
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 07:24 AM
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I've seen puffins on northern Vancouver island, at Cape Scott and Triangle Island.(Triangle island requires a boat, you can hike into Cape Scott)

Also in HaidaGwai there are puffins. It used to be called the Queen Charlotte Islands, north of Vancouver island, you can fly there from Vancouver.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 07:39 AM
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We did see puffins in Scotland in mid-July some years back, at the RSPB Fowlsheugh near Stonehaven. We also saw them while looking down from the walls of Dunnottar Castle.

We returned home with these mugs, purchased at Stirling Castle:
http://www.temptationgifts.com/produ...evis-shape-mug

Good luck next time!
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 08:18 AM
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In the Skelligs off Kerry, I think it was around June time
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 08:21 AM
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I've seen puffins on Eastern Egg Rock off the Pemaquid Penninsula in Maine. Best time is early summer but apparently they are staying longer. The Hardy Boast offers cruises from New Harbor.


http://hardyboat.com/puffin-watch/
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 08:31 AM
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From my living room in Washington State. They are now endangered here in Washington, but I am able to occasionally see Tufted Puffins in the Spring and Summer feeding in the Guemes Channel just below our home, as well as in the San Juan Islands when we travel on the ferries to see friends. Lovely birds.

We often have a bald eagle feed on a piling just in front of our house and, sadly, I recently watched through my big binoculars as he disassemble a puffin for his lunch.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 09:02 AM
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In the Azores, in summer.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 09:23 AM
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Farne Islands, Coquet Island and Bempton Cliffs
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 10:01 AM
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I've never seen puffins in Scotland, but I have seen them on Lundy [just off the North Devon coast] and we were lucky enough to be able to visit "puffin city" aka the cliffs of the western fjords of Iceland, where if you lie down on the cliff edge, you will see a puffin looking back up at you.

We also saw them flying over the water [and in it] when we were on the ferry going from the fjords to the snaefellnesses peninsular.

They are such brilliant little birds and make very sweet chirping noises.

it was end July/ beginning of August.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 12:02 PM
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In SE Alaska in early July.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 01:50 PM
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I saw them at the cliffs of Moher from the cliff cruise in June one year.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2016 | 11:32 PM
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In Brittany, France, close to Perros Guirec, they are on an island, endangered and protected.
They are called Macareux moines there.
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Old Aug 24th, 2016 | 12:19 AM
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Lundy of the coast of North Devon.
http://www.lundymcz.org.uk/discover/...eabirds/puffin
or the Farne Island just off Northumberland.
http://www.visitnorthumberland.com/n.../farne-islands
or maybe any of these locations.
http://www.photographers-resource.co...uffin_list.htm
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Old Aug 24th, 2016 | 06:23 AM
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Thank you everyone, looks like I have plenty of choices - better timing next time.
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Old Aug 24th, 2016 | 07:01 AM
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I've also seen puffins off the coast of Maine, near Bar Harbor.
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Old Aug 24th, 2016 | 07:13 AM
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Elliston, Newfoundland is a great place to see puffins from land, but the greatest concentration of puffins in North America is at the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve where over 250,000 breeding pairs nest. There are frequent boat tours out to the islands.

The puffin is the official bird of Newfoundland.

http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/env/parks/wer/r_wbe/
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