Checking out the puffins in Oregon’s Cannon Beach

By Rachel Levin, Sunset senior editor

Confession: I’ve got a thing for birds. I’m a wannabe birder. I can’t tell a scrub jay from a blue jay; I confuse egrets with herons; and, it’s embarassing to admit, but I’ve been known to mistake a turkey vulture for a red-tailed hawk.

However, I do know that tufted puffins—aka Fratercula cirrhata, (okay, I looked that up)—are pretty darn cool. I mean, check out this proud little puffin, with his stocky black body, snow-white face, thick orange bill, and ridiculously overgrown yellow eyebrows. After a winter spent diving on the open seas, the puffins have just returned to nest on Haystack Rock in Oregon’s Cannon Beach, where they’ll be laying eggs and raising chicks now through mid-July.

That’s pretty much all I know about puffins. But real birders from Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock Awareness Program will be on hand all summer long with their big scopes pointed right at the rocky island if you want to learn more.