Puffins pop up around the bay
Birds usually not seen so far south
By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer
06/23/2007
A horned puffin perches on a rock face at Point Lobos on Monday.
(MARC CUTINO/Special to The Herald)
An arctic seabird seldom seen south of Puget Sound has been showing up in unusual numbers in Monterey Bay since May.
Horned puffins, one of two species of puffin found on the West Coast, have been sighted from Santa Cruz to Point Lobos, according to naturalists on Monterey Bay.
"It is an unusual occurrence," said Christina Slager, curator in the husbandry division of Monterey Bay Aquarium, who specializes in seabirds. "Horned puffins are occasionally spotted in this area, but recently there has been a rash of sightings of horned puffins in the bay. It's a very rare occurrence In Monterey Bay in the summer."
They are easily recognized by "their clownlike faces," black-and-white plumage, red-tipped beaks and orange-yellow webbed feet, she said.
"They are solitary birds and you usually see them out to sea unless they're nesting. The fact that they're here at all is unusual. We normally don't see them south of Puget Sound."
No one seems to know just why they're here, Slager said: "Perhaps a food shortage, but they don't seem to be dying."
When horned puffins are seen this far south, it's usually in the winter and miles offshore, said Alan Baldridge, retired librarian of Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove and a longtime observer of marine mammals and seabirds on the coast.
"It's almost without precedent in the number of birds involved," he said, adding that in 51 years of observing Monterey Bay wildlife, "I've seen the bird alive about three times."
It could be, Baldridge said, that more birds are being spotted because there are more active bird-watchers and beach walkers skilled at identifying birds these days than there had been in the past, "but it's still a significant event."
Their appearance could be related to a food shortage elsewhere, he said, but so far their appearance in numbers is a mystery.
The tufted puffin, the other species of puffin on the West Coast, nests and breeds as far south as the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, he said, while horned puffins are generally most abundant in the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea off Alaska.
"They're a long way south of where they should be this time of year," Baldridge said.
Sightings of groups of puffins have been reported at Bird Rock in Pebble Beach, the Coast Guard breakwater, and from the Monterey Peninsula Recreational Trail in the Pacific Grove and Monterey waterfronts, Baldridge said, and a few dead birds found on beaches.
"It's exciting," he said. "It's definitely the event of the year as far as seabirds go."
Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or .