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Puffin Love Flies High in Maine

Penguin lookalikes need 24-hour protection from swooping gulls

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 26, 2007 5:28 PM CDT

(Newser) – Puffin-love is flying high in Maine, where hundreds of these penguin look-a-likes are lured by wooden decoys and given 24-hour protection, the AP reports. Supervisors endure screeching gulls and pooping dive-bombers to protect these finned waddlers and their nests. So just what are puffins? Birds that look like penguins, but live on the other end of the world and can fly as well as swim.

The head of a bird restoration program is behind the plan to bring puffins back to Maine, where they flourished more than 100 years ago. The problem is gulls that swoop down and rob puffin chicks from their nests. When the protection goes away, so will the puffins. "Sometimes people say, 'How long are you going to have to do this?' In this project, we don't see an end."

Jeff Kimmons and Delaney Burke, crew members of Project Puffin, row ashore from a supply boat moored near Eastern Egg Rock, Maine, Monday, June 25, 2007. The 7-acre island is located about five miles offshore in Muscongus Bay. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Jeff Kimmons and Delaney Burke, crew members of Project Puffin, row ashore from a supply boat moored near Eastern Egg Rock, Maine, Monday, June 25, 2007. The 7-acre island is located about five miles...   (Associated Press)
An Atlantic puffin with a beak crammed with hake makes its way to a burrow to feed its chick, Monday July 9, 2007, on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine. Puffins raise one chick per year.  (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
An Atlantic puffin with a beak crammed with hake makes its way to a burrow to feed its chick, Monday July 9, 2007, on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine. Puffins raise one chick per year. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)   (Associated Press)
An Atlantic puffin appears to imitate a decoy by standing on one leg, Monday July 9, 2007, on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine. Decoys were used to lure the gregarious birds ashore after they were re-introduced to the island following a 100-year absence.  (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
An Atlantic puffin appears to imitate a decoy by standing on one leg, Monday July 9, 2007, on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine. Decoys were used to lure the gregarious birds ashore after they were re-introduced...   (Associated Press)
An Atlantic puffin flies with a mouthful of hake on its way to feed its chick, Monday July 9, 2007, on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine. The leg band helps researchers collect data on specific birds.  (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
An Atlantic puffin flies with a mouthful of hake on its way to feed its chick, Monday July 9, 2007, on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine. The leg band helps researchers collect data on specific birds. (AP Photo/Robert...   (Associated Press)
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