72 Microseasons of the Pacific Northwest

Two of the Pacific Northwest's most charismatic seabirds — rhinoceros auklets (Cerorhinca monocerata) and tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) — are settling onto their island nesting colonies in early June, beginning the intensive period of burrow excavation, courtship, and early incubation. Both species nest in burrows dug into soft soil on predator-free islands, returning to the same burrow site year after year. Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, just offshore from Port Townsend, hosts one of the largest breeding colonies of rhinoceros auklets in the world — roughly 17,000 pairs. The island is closed to landing, but chartered boats from Port Townsend circle it, and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center runs educational birdwatching cruises directly to the colony. At dusk, the auklets return en masse from offshore feeding, each adult carrying a dozen or more small fish crosswise in its bill to feed the single chick underground — a remarkable sight as hundreds of birds wheel and land along the island's grassy slopes. Tufted puffins — jet-black, with massive orange-and-red bills and dramatic golden head plumes in breeding season — nest on rocky offshore islands along the Oregon coast, including Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach (where the colony is visible from the beach), Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge near Tillamook, and Rogue Reef near Gold Beach. On the Washington coast, Destruction Island and the rocks off Cape Flattery support colonies. By early June, the birds are in peak breeding plumage, making them unmistakable from small boats or shore-based scopes. Common murres (Uria aalge) nest simultaneously on open rock ledges at many of the same sites, packing themselves shoulder-to-shoulder in throngs of thousands.