- [Narrator] In the world of seabirds,
no one stands out like the tufted puffin.
With big colorful beaks, white faces,
and their namesake tufts,
they've earned the nickname "the parrots of the sea."
Although their delightful waddle
makes us think more of a tipsy maître d'.
- [CJ] I think generally
people consider the puffins the clowns.
When the birds are in the water splashing around
that gets the biggest laugh
because they are very enthusiastic splashing,
sometimes their feet are in the air.
But I think also because of the nice yellow tufts,
they also seem a little bit comical to people.
And they think they're quite cute.
- Ducky feet. Ducky feet. Ducky feet!
- [Narrator] Most people only get to see puffins
in captivity,
because the birds spend most of their lives at sea.
- [Mom] Look at how close we are.
- [Narrator] And only come near the coast
during the summer to nest.
But there is one spot in the lower 48
where you can see puffins from the shore:
Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach.
- Come on over.
We've got these scopes fixed on the puffins.
They're nesting up on Haystack Rock.
- [Narrator] Tiffany Boothe
is a board member with the nonprofit group
Friends of Haystack Rock.
Every July, they set up scopes
for what they call Puffin Watch.
- [Tiffany] So if you just look through there
and down to the bottom. Do you see them?
They're the black guys with the orange beaks.
- They're awesome.
- [Tiffany] Most of the people don't know
that tufted puffins are on the Oregon coast.
- They're adorable.
- [Tiffany] So to be down at Haystack Rock
and set up the scopes
and allow people to look at them up close
in their burrows and their interactions is
is really fun to see the people's excitement about it.
- Oh, there they are, I see them. Yay!
- [Child] I think it's really cool
how they're all centered into one rock.
It's like a big puffin village.
- [Narrator] But the annual Puffin Watch
isn't just about sharing the joy of puffins.
It's also about sharing the fact
that the birds are in danger.
Their population has plummeted.
There have been highly publicized die-offs in Alaska,
and their colonies are disappearing along the West Coast.
Washington listed them as endangered,
and puffin watchers fear Oregon could be next.
No one is following the plight of the puffins,
on Haystack Rock like Tim Halloran.
From their arrival in the spring to nest
until the last little puffling
flies out to see at the end of summer,
he's here with his scope,
keeping a detailed record of their activities.
- [Tim] Okay, it looks like there's
a couple of them up there.
So I will write down the time
and the location and a little bit about them.
- [Narrator] For nine years,
Tim has worked as a volunteer
for the US Fish and Wildlife Service
to monitor these Puffins.
- We've got a population of about 130 here
that's been pretty stable for 10 years.
Now, 60 years ago, there would have been 800
just here on the rock and thousands more
up and down the coast.
- No kidding. - Really?
- So their population is down.
So where are you guys from?
- [Narrator] Tim also doubles as an avian ambassador
to all the birders who come from around the world
to see these puffins.
- So we're looking for tufted puffins up there.
- [Tim] Well, we've got them.
However, conditions are such.
(laughing)
- [Caleb] There's a puffin carrying food...
not carrying food, carrying nesting material and landing.
They have this really amazing breeding plumage,
and they're really uniquely beautiful type of bird.
And this is also one of the only places in the state
where you can see them without them being a fly-by
way out at sea.
So, so they're really a unique and local bird in this place,
so that's why we would come all the way up here to see them.
- [Narrator] Which is also why Tim
in the US Fish and Wildlife Service
are keeping a tight eye on the puffin population.
No one wants to think of Haystack Rock without them.
Monitoring Haystack Rock
is just part of Fish and Wildlife's research.
They also periodically survey the few offshore islands
where puffins nest.
- [Shawn] So, let's go up to Middle Rock and do a count,
and then we'll come back and do a count of Finley Rock.
- [Narrator] Shawn Stephensen oversees the agency's
puffins research in Oregon,
and he relies heavily on volunteers like Tim, Tiffany
and the other folks he's brought along for today's survey.
- [Shawn] In 1988, a burrow nesting survey was done
along the entire Oregon coast.
They estimated approximately 5,000 tufted puffins.
And then in 2008, I conducted a survey,
and we documented several hundred puffins
along the entire Oregon Coast.
And that threw up a red flag.
- [Narrator] And what have been the biggest colony,
here on Three Arch Rocks, fell from almost 3000 puffins
to less than a hundred.
So the stakes are high today to see if they've returned.
- [Terra] There seems to be more birds on land this time around
than last time. Granted I've only counted three,
but I just started so.
- [Shawn] Oh yeah, there's a bunch.
- This side of the rock is good nesting habitat
for murres and cormorants, but not so much for the puffins.
There's just not enough soil.
They like to burrow into the soil,
and the soil depth is probably minimal along here,
as well as it will be on the other side.
- [Narrator] It's this unique geology
and the incredible seabird colonies it supports
that earned Three Arch Rocks
the first National Wildlife Refuge designation
West of the Mississippi.
To protect the birds, the area is off limits to the public
during nesting season,
but that doesn't stop other types of seafarers
from visiting.
- There's a whale right in between the rock.
- [Terra] Oh hey, yeah.
- [Shawn] In between the islands
- [Brent] Is that a gray probably?
- [Shawn] Yeah, a gray whale.
- [Narrator] No one knows for sure
Why the number of puffins
returning to nest on islands like these is falling.
Some scientists think warming ocean temperatures
caused by climate change are disrupting the food web
and in effect starving the birds.
They also blame things like oil spills
and human disturbances near breeding sites.
But it's hard to draw firm conclusions
when we know so little about the lives of puffins
out on the open ocean.
- [Tiffany] Since these guys hunt further off shore,
is it typical for me not to be seeing them on the water?
- They could be and they may not be on the water,
and they could be further off shore
definitely finding food for their chicks.
- [Narrator] This is where puffin lovers like Tiffany
and the Friends of Haystack Rock come in.
They're raising money to fund research
to place transmitters on the birds.
- [Shawn] So we can follow their movements,
track where they're going during the breeding season
as well as during the winter.
- [Narrator] That research is still in development.
For now, the volunteers are focused on today's survey.
- [Terra] How many did you have?
- [Tiffany] I had zero on the water.
- [Terra] What about you Brent?
- [Brent] I had 17 in the sky.
- [Terra] And I had nine in the land in front of their burrows.
- The numbers are larger than I expected.
Sounds like we've got several hundred so far.
So that's a good sign.
- [Narrator] Our count completed,
Shawn offers to take us out
to the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
It might be known as Terrible Tilly,
but at the moment it just seems terribly crowded
with Steller sea lions,
who take an incredible interest in us.
Like an aquatic twist on the hand slap game,
they come up to our boat to slap the hull and dart away.
The hope is that one day the puffins on Haystack Rock
and Three Arch Rocks will again be as plentiful
as this sea lions on Tillamook Rock.
But as Shawn sees it,
it really is going to take a village:
scientists and everyday puffin lovers working together.