The "Maine's Puffin Seabirds" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story written by Associated Press writer Patrick Whittle titled "Maine's puffin colonies rebound."  The more I read the more I enjoyed the puffin!  Patrick began with...On remote islands off the Maine coast, a unique bird held its own this year in the face of climate change.  Atlantic puffins...clownish seabirds with colorful bills and wadding gaits...had their second consecutive rebound year for fledging chicks after suffering a catastrophic 2021, said scientists who monitor the birds.  

The news flies in the face of environmental trends, as scientists have said warming waters off New England jeopardize the birds because that reduces the kind of fish they need to feed their chicks.  One fish, though...the sand lance...has remained in abundance this year, allowing puffins to thrive.  It's a sign the impact of climate change on ecosystems is not always as bad as we think.  The Maine puffin colonies have been restored from just a few dozen to close to 3,000 birds.  The puffins, also known as"clowns of the sea" or "sea parrots" nest in burrows and feed their chicks small fish such as herring.  About two-thirds of the puffins fledged chicks last year.  The birds did not equal that number this year, but they again had a better year than 2021.  The puffins' ability to reproduce despite environmental changes speaks to the resiliency of seabirds.  However, the long-term dangers posed by climate change such as fatal heat waves, loss of food, loss of islands to the sea level rise and inability to breed, remain threats to puffins as well as other seabirds.   The problem with climate change, its the breeding failures and low productivity are now becoming chronic.  There will be fewer birds to enter the breeding population.   Maine's puffins are the only breeding Atlantic puffins in the U.S.   Worldwide, the species lives in the North Atlantic from Maine and Canada to Europe.  Other countries with large puffin populations, such as Iceland, have seen the birds decline in number in recent years.  They are such a cute bird that you feel you just have to grab them and hold them in your hands.  The top photo shows the cute puffin fish while the bottom photo shows a puffin with a beak full of baitfish.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.