Stay at Cap'n Fish's Waterfront Inn and receive discount tickets to Cap'n Fish's Whale Watch and Scenic Boat Tours.
Puffins are cool! With those big colorful beaks,
dark soulful eyes and a penguin-like appearance, it’s
hard not to like them. Puffins can typically be found in the
very chilly waters of the North Atlantic, in places like Iceland
and Norway. Lucky for us then that not far from Boothbay Harbor
is the southernmost Atlantic Puffin colony in all of North
America – Eastern Egg Rock.
In Maine, Puffins are rare, and are actually listed as
a Threatened Species. On Eastern Egg Rock, however, there are about
90 nesting pairs, along with perhaps a thousand pairs of Terns
and other unusual seabirds. During the summertime, Puffins come
ashore to raise their young, and the female lays her egg in a crevice
under the tumble of boulders that line the shoreline of Eastern
Egg Rock Once the chicks are full grown – usually by mid-August – all
the Puffins leave their nesting island and fly out to sea to spend
the winter. And they don’t come back to land til next April.
ABOUT THE TOUR
A Puffin-watching cruise is kind of like an
ocean-going treasure hunt…. you just never know what’s
going to show up! As we travel through Boothbay Harbor and
search for all the marvelous sea creatures which call this
area their home, seals often surface near the boat, or can
be found sunning themselves on the rocks. A loon flies by.
A Minke Whale surprises everyone with its sheer size and
bulk. And, of course there are lighthouses, which we know
as permanent treasures here on the New England coast.
As the boat gets to Eastern Egg Rock, everyone is up and
looking around for those pint-sized little Puffins. We scan
the rocks and the skies, and then someone shouts, and lo
and behold there is a group of Puffins sitting in the water,
bobbing up and down, perhaps 50 or 60 feet from the boat.
More fly by, and soon someone spots a bunch sitting on the
granite boulders along shore.
We slowly circle the
seven-acre island once or twice, and dozens of large Eider Ducks
spring from the water into flight. Laughing Gulls cry out with
their loud, cackling vocalizations. And more puffins and their
funny little cousins, the Black Guillemots, whiz past us, going
about 40 miles an hour.
When its time to start back, the excitement
on the boat is still high. Success! We saw a bird that very few
Mainers have ever seen – the ocean-going, charismatic Atlantic
Puffin…
"Captain Fish's puffin cruises are wonderful experiences for many reasons, not the least of which is the terrific scenery and the miles of coastline between Boothbay Harbor and Eastern Egg Rock. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the trip is that since the boat travels in deep waters the opportunity to see unusual wildlife like a minke whale or maybe even a finback whale is always there, in addition to offshore species of birds like northern gannets and petrels. But the real treat is in seeing the busy and exciting colony of Atlantic Puffins at their southernmost nesting island in all of North America. National Audubon Society is proud of the relationship we've had with the Fish family in collaborating on these eco-tourism cruises ever since the puffins were restored to Eastern Egg Rock, back in the 1980's, and we've been able to serve tens of thousands of people since then on these wildlife explorations. Peter Salmansohn, Education Coordinator,
Seabird Restoration Program
“The puffin watching trip to Eastern Egg Rock with Captain Fish aboard the Island Lady is a delightful and informed wildlife watching experience. Audubon is proud to have our naturalists on board to provide passengers with insight into the lives of puffins and other Maine seabirds. “ Stephen Kress, Director, Project Puffin
See at first hand the National Audubon Society's success in
reestablishing a Puffin Colony on Eastern Egg Rock. Truly a magnificent
"Seafari" for all nature lovers with seals, blue heron, an occasional
whale and other coastal wildlife along the way.
June - Wednesdays only 10:00 am
July - Late August - Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays 10:00am
BOOTHBAY HARBOR 
