Pete Salmansohn, knows as Puffin Pete, is my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #57. Pete has worked as an educator for National Audubon Society and other organizations, and has been especially involved in education about seabirds off the Maine Coast. We talk about the highly successful and ongoing reintroduction of Atlantic Puffins and other seabirds to breeding islands off the Maine Coast. Enjoy.
Seabirds are one of the true wonders of the world. These birds in many cases spend their lives at sea, coming to shore only to breed. The family called Alcids, or Alcidae, are the northern hemisphere equivalent of the southern hemisphere penguins. They may be less well known to non-birders, but are incredible creatures none-the-less. Atlantic Puffins are maybe the most colorful of the puffin family. We have Tufted Puffins and Horned Puffins in the Pacific, and in the Atlantic are the Atlantic Puffins. Our commonly seen Rhinoceros Auklet is relatively closely related to the puffins also.

These days it is relatively easy to see Atlantic Puffins on a short boat ride from New Harbor, ME. This is the boat that Pete Salmansohn led trips for decades, and we talk about these on the episode. Here is a link to the company that offers these trips.

We talk about Hog Island Audubon Camp and here is a link to their site.
Here is the Project Puffin website link
Here is a link to a 2010 Smithsonian Magazine article on the Puffin Reintroduction.
Here is another article about the work of their project. I like this one a lot.
You can find both of Pete’s children’s books on Amazon on or other book sellers. Here is a link on Amazon to the Project Puffin book
Here is Saving Birds- Heros Around the World link.
You can find out about the Hudson Highlands Land Trust here.
We also mention the artist island Monhegan Island on the episode. Here is information about that fabulous place to visit.
Here are links to other Bird Banter Podcast Episodes we talked about:
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #26 with Tim Larson
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #44 with Clarice and Jerry Broadus
Enjoy Spring Migration.

Good birding. Good Day!