Coast Explorer Blog

Students from Cannon Beach Elementary School welcomed the Tufted Puffins back to Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock to celebrate Earth Day on Thursday, April 22. The students unfurled a banner reading “Welcome Back Puffins” and sang a song written for the occasion. Just moments before the students gathered for a group photo with the banner, a Bald Eagle took to the air, circling Haystack Rock and sending gulls squawking from their nesting sites in a display that couldn’t have been scripted better for Earth Day in this coastal community. The Haystack Rock Awareness Program then hosted a series of activities for the students including birdwatching stations.

Puffins spend most of the year on the open waters of the Pacific, but return to near shore rocks and remote locations along the coast each spring to nest and raise their chicks before returning to sea in mid summer. Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock is the most accessible locations to view nesting puffins in the Northwest. Throughout their stay, the Haystack Rock Awareness Program will offer visitors the opportunity to view the birds from bird watching stations set up during low tides.

In 2010, the Haystack Rock Awareness Program is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its unique partnership between the community and City of Cannon Beach that has provided education and preservation efforts for Cannon Beach’s most famous landmark. The program not only enhances the experience of visitors to Cannon Beach, but protects this remarkable natural area for future generations of visitors. Primarily volunteer driven, the program has received funding from the City since 1985 and now features a full time coordinator.

Additional funding for the Haystack Rock Awareness Program is provided by the non-profit group, Friends of Haystack Rock. Friends makes it possible for the program to seek and receive funding from other non-profit sources. In recent years, the Friends group has secured grants and donations that have made it possible to hire additional staff through the AmeriCorps program, create colorful interpretive panels at beach access areas and purchase equipment including an interpretive trailer used for beach educational programs. Earth Day marks the kickoff to the annual fundraising campaign for Friends of Haystack Rock. The two month fundraising effort will seek both individual and business contributions. All contributions are tax deductible and can be made to: Friends of Haystack Rock, PO Box 1222, Cannon Beach, Oregon 97110.

It’s like the swallows return to Capistrano only wetter. Each spring, colorful tufted puffins, that have spent the last eight months floating and diving on open seas, return to Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock to lay eggs and raise their chicks. On April 1, the first of the puffins began arriving on Haystack Rock said Nala Cardillo, coordinator of the Haystack Rock Awareness Program. The April 1 arrival is certainly appropriate for the birds sometimes referred to as sea clowns because of their white face, thick orange bill and yellow eyebrow tufts.. The puffins will be observable through spring and early summer.

Throughout the puffins’ stay, interpreters from Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock Awareness Program will be on the beach with spotting scopes focused on the nesting birds offering visitors an opportunity to see the colorful characters. Two special events will offer an emphasis on spotting the colorful seabirds. From April 22-May 3, Cannon Beach hosts Twelve Days of Earth Day and on Independence Day weekend, July 3-4, the city hosts the Great Cannon Beach Puffin Watch on the beach with bird watching stations and interpretive programs as an alternative to fireworks. State laws prohibiting fireworks on the beach are enforced on the Cannon Beach shoreline to protect nesting seabirds on the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and sensitive marine environments including Haystack Rock, a protected area and State of Oregon designated Marine Garden.

Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach provides one of the Northwest’s most accessible locations to observe puffins nesting in their natural environment. Tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) prefer to nest in inaccessible locations, usually remote rocky islands with grassy areas into which they burrow their nests.

From a distance, they are also easy to recognize. Their wings flap furiously and continuously to keep their stocky bodies airborne. Puffins are actually much better divers than they are fliers. They literally fly underwater, flapping their wings in pursuit of fish to feed themselves and their new brood. Most of the year, the puffins are a nondescript gray, but come spring breeding season, the bright colors emerge that make them one of the west coast’s most popular birds. The puffins are most visible and active at Haystack Rock from April through early-July. Once chicks have hatched, parents are busy at sea, fishing for food to bring home to the burrow. By late August, the puffin chicks will be ready to return to open seas with their parents.

At 6:30am this morning, a small group of volunteers with a pet carrier entered the protected Marine Garden at the base of Haystack Rock and climbed into the lower area of the National Wildlife Refuge with special permission from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The mission: to release a tufted puffin that had spent the last eight weeks at the Wildlife Center of the North Coast near Astoria.

A young girl, who was on vacation, found the bird on Indian Beach in Ecola State Park. The bird was unable to walk due to a leg injury and the Wildlife Center was called. Director Sharnelle Fee came to pick up the injured bird and, at the Center, the puffin’s wound was cleaned and wrapped and the bird was given water, vitamins and antibiotics to clear up the infection. The puffin healed slowly and about four weeks ago, the bird started to put its weight back on the injured limb. The puffin was then moved from the hospital area to a pool, where it could swim and gain strength.

Finally deemed healthy enough to release back to the wild, the intention was to release the puffin before the colony of tufted puffins returned to the sea after their spring and summer nesting season. Cannon Beach’s iconic sea stack offers nesting habitat for the birds between April and August, where the colorful seabirds burrow deep tunnels into the grassy slopes. Typically in August, the birds return to the open waters of the Pacific where they will spend the next eight months, not returning to land until the next April when it’s time to breed again.

Interested onloookers got a closeup view of the rescued puffin

The tufted puffin was beginning to fade from its colorful breeding plumage.

During the breeding season, the puffins develop their colorful plumage, a white face, bright orange bill and distinctive yellow eyebrow tufts. After the breeding season, the birds return to a non-descript gray and black plumage. While in rehab, the soon to be released puffin was already starting to lose its breeding colors.

I arrived at the beach just as Kristin Albrecht, a volunteer with the Wildlife Center; Jenee Pearce, a volunteer with the Haystack Rock Awareness Program and Josh Saranpaa, an intern at the Wildlife Center, began to descend to the beach with the bird. Josh, an Astoria High School senior had driven out to the Center at 5am to pick up the puffin for the release.

A dense fog enveloped the beach on the morning of the release and as I started down the stairway beach access, I could not even see Haystack Rock, just a couple hundred yards away. As I neared the area of the rock, the form of the Haystack Rock Awareness Program truck and interpretive trailer emerged from the white shrouded landscape and I made out the small group gathered to witness the release.

The release plan was discussed on the beach.

The release team entering the National Wildlife Refuge under special permission from US Fish and Wildlife.

Volunteers and interested visitors got the opportunity to see the puffin up close in the pet carrier as the release team discussed the operation. Kristin asked the group of about 25 volunteers and visitors who had gathered, to watch the release from the north side of what is known as “The Saddle” area of Haystack Rock while just a small release team entered the protected area of the National Wildlife Refuge. Choosing its steps carefully, the release team of Kristin, Jenee and Josh climbed to the release point that was selected where their presence would not disturb other nesting birds. The site was chosen close the north side of the rock where puffins nest “to help the little guy feel a little more sure of his surroundings,” said Kristin. On the beach, Haystack Rock Awareness Program interpreter Lisa Habecker described the activities to the onlookers and answered questions about tufted puffins.

Upon reaching the release site and placing the carrier on the rock, Kristen unlatched the door, stepped back … and … nothing happened. The puffin only peered out of the open carrier. Josh approached the back of the carrier to see if the puffin would move toward the door, but still the puffin stayed put. Finally, Kristin tipped the carrier forward and the bird slid to the opening and stepped out, onto the rock.

The puffin was placed at the release site and the door opened.

The puffin was reluctant to emerge from the carrier.

The puffin glances back at onlookers.

The puffin appeared to just stand and survey the situation, carefully considering its next move. Then came some wing stretching and flapping. Climbing to the tallest point nearby, the bird sat for several seconds in plain view of the gathered crowd. Knowing that puffins are not great aviators under the best of circumstances, I was apprehensive about the bird’s first flight. Like a leap of faith, the puffin dove from the rock, dropped toward the beach with the furious flapping wings. Pulling out of its downward descent, the puffin took flight toward the sea and disappeared into the fog to the delight of all watching.

The puffin climbed up the rock after its release.

The puffin stretched and flapped its wings.

Climbing to the highest part of the rock, the puffin launched itself and disappeared into the foggy landscape over the ocean.

Returning to the beach, the volunteers and onlookers reveled in their apparent success. Suddenly the focus shifted attention to a nearby tidepool. A recently fledged cormorant was swimming around the pool with nowhere to go. The rescue team jumped into action, caught the young bird and placed it in the recently evacuated pet carrier for transportation to the Wildlife Center. Another day in the life of volunteers committed to protecting wildlife on this stretch of Pacific coast.

About Puffins on Haystack Rock

Haystack Rock is protected as part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and it provides the most accessible location in the Northwest to observe a colony of tufted puffins. Puffins are members of the auk family of seabirds. They mate for life, are monogamous and couples come back to their same burrows every year. They have one egg a season and both parents participate in the feeding and caring of their young. Because they nest in burrows, puffin numbers are difficult to estimate, but is generally believed that their numbers are dropping. Young puffins are rarely seen since they mature in the burrow and fledge at night. The puffins at Haystack Rock fly about 300 miles northwest of Cannon Beach for the winter.

As part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and as a State of Oregon designated Marine Garden, access to sensitive areas of Haystack Rock is prohibited. With its heavy visitation and as one of the most accessible of Oregon’s offshore island refuges, the preservation of the unique wildlife and sea life at Haystack Rock is challenging. Visitors should respect signage indicating prohibited areas and walk only on bare rock or sand to protect intertidal life. It only takes a few careless acts to decimate seabird populations during critical nesting times.

About the Wildlife Center of the North Coast.

The Wildlife Center of the North Coast is a non-profit, licensed rehab facility that relies on volunteers for both the hospital rehabilitation work and as runners for injured wildlife. The operation is totally funded by donations. They are always in need of volunteers, cash donations and materials used to care for the animals. Contributions can be made to: The Wildlife Center of the North Coast, PO Box 1232, Astoria, OR 97302. The WCNC is located on Oregon Highway 202, just outside of Olney. Please call Sharnelle Fee, the WCNC director at (503) 338-0331 if you would like to assist in some way or to report injured wildlife. More information can be found at www.coastwildlife.org.

About the Haystack Rock Awareness Program

Since 1985, the Haystack Rock Awareness Program (HRAP) has worked to educate visitors about preserving Cannon Beach’s most recognizable landmark, Haystack Rock. The program has been acknowledged as a model for community-based volunteer programs.

During periods of heavy visitation at low tide when sensitive marine and bird nesting environments are accessible to the public, staff and volunteers conduct natural resource interpretation and answer visitors’ questions regarding the natural areas. Interpreters monitor the area and engage the public on ways to prevent damage to the environment. HRAP also maintains interpretive information on the beach including displays of intertidal life and bird-spotting scopes aimed at nesting seabirds.

The Haystack Rock Awareness Program is a professionally staffed, volunteer driven program that receives funding from the City of Cannon Beach and private donations. A recently formed non-profit organization, Friends of Haystack Rock, was created to provide guidance and support for the program.

For information or to volunteer, contact the Haystack Rock Awareness Program, PO Box 368, Cannon Beach, OR 97110 or call the director, Nala Cardillo at (503) 436-8060.

Contributions to the Haystack Rock Awareness Program can be made through Friends of Haystack Rock, PO Box 1222, Cannon Beach, OR 97110.

Rescuing wildlife can be a touchy subject. When is it better to let nature take its course for better or worse and when is it appropriate to step in and help?

I got a call from Deborah Anderson this morning about a Black Oystercatcher nesting site we have been monitoring for the US Geological Survey. It seems the oystercatcher chick had tumbled down about 20 feet below the ledge where the pair was nesting, leaving the baby bird close to the tide line and far too close to
people and dogs during low tide. Deborah called the North Coast Wildlife Rehab Center and left a message, while I checked in with Elise Elliott-Smith from USGS for her recommendations. She advised that if the chick was one or two weeks old, they were capable of climbing to a higher location.

The parent oystercatcher looks down at its chick (bottom left corner) that tumbled down some 20 feet from its nesting ledge above.

When I arrived at the nesting site at Chapman Point, the parent was keeping close to its small chick despite the close access the low tide made possible for beach goers and dogs. Not long after I arrived, Mark and Kristin Albrecht, volunteers with the Rehab Center arrived to assess the scene. It was clear that this chick was too young to climb higher, despite urgings from a parent, so Mark and Kristin located a safe ledge nearby to relocate the chick.

Mark began scaling the rock face to reach the chick, much to the distress of the parent who stayed to protect its young until Mark was within reach. Mark carefully scooped up the baby bird and handed it off to Kristin at the base of the rock. The chick was clearly only days old and still had its eyes shut. Kristin held the ball of gray and black fluff as Mark climbed down and then scaled the location chosen nearby to relocate the baby bird.

The handoff

It was a dicey climb to reach the location, but when he was within arm’s reach, Kristin handed him the chick and he placed it on a much higher, safer and protected ledge. Both oystercatcher parents kept a close eye on what was going on, flying by and watching from a nearby perches. As Mark slowly retreated from the rock, one of the parents moved in quickly and, reunited with the chick, immediately returning to cover its young.

A distraught parent

Mark places the chick in its new, safer location.

As the chick and one parent were safely in their new spot, the other parent kept a close eye on the small group of people who watched the rescue and continued to recheck both the original nest and the spot where the chick was removed.
The relocation looked to be a complete success. The site will continue to be monitored with reports submitted to the USGS. The Black Oystercatcher is listed as a “species of concern” by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Their nesting sites, ledges on near shore rocks, are often under pressure from beach goers getting too close, especially at low tides. Once flushed from their nesting sites, other predators swoop in for an easy meal. Several other nearby nesting sites already failed this year, including one at Haystack Rock and Ecola Point.

As soon as the chick was placed in the new location and Mark retreated from the ledge, the parents quickly moved in to take care of their young.

All offshore and near shore rocks on the Oregon Coast are part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and climbing is not permitted. Visitors should keep a safe distance to avoid disturbing nesting sites.

In a majority of cases, it is advisable for the public to call local officials if they believe wildlife are in need of assistance, rather than taking action themselves. Local authorities know the resources to call to make critical decisions about what steps should be taken to assist wildlife.

For more on oystercatchers, see our article in the current issue of Coast Explorer at: http://www.coastexplorermagazine.com/display.php?id=79

UPDATE (7/24/09) Deborah has continued to monitor the site. The birds appeared to be doing well, both Thursday evening and Friday morning. I will check the site today.

UPDATE (7/26/09) Deborah checked the site yesterday (Saturday) and things still looked good. I checked the site today (Sunday) at low tide and although the parents were distressed and left the nest site when dogs were running and splashing in the water below them, they returned and I was able to see the chick’s head popping up occasionally in the same position that it was placed during the rescue. Today was the last of the minus tides, so hopefully the birds can relax a little without so much activity nearby.

Summer on the coast is seabird season as birds, who spend most of their life at sea, return to near-shore rocks to nest. Puffins on Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach offer a rare treat to see these colorful birds. While puffins are popular, just about a mile to the north in Cannon Beach is another remarkable display of nature. At Chapman Point, a grouping of rocks appropriately known as Bird Rocks is home to a colony of thousands of common murres that crowd nearly every inch of the top of the rocks. The colony of murres has been estimated in the tens of thousands here.

Common murres are similar to penguins, but murres can fly, admittedly very awkwardly. Growing to nearly 18 inches in length, they are one of the largest seabirds that can fly. They are much more graceful in the water, where they dive for food. Also in this shot, Brandt's Cormorants with their distinctive blue throat patch.

The last few years, the murre colony has received frequent, unwelcome visits from a rebounding local population of bald eagles. This week, three juvenile eagles were frequenting the rocks and nearby beaches. Adults were also spotted in the area.

A juvenile bald eagle is pestered by a seagull after raising a ruckus on Bird Rocks. Juvenile eagles are speckled and can take four or five years to display the distinctive white head and tail of an adult.

Typically, when an eagle soars overhead, thousands of murres spill off the rocks, abandoning their eggs and flee to the waters until the eagles depart. Gulls and crows, as well as the eagles feast on fresh murre eggs. The impact on this murre colony with the growing population of eagles is unknown, but watching this ongoing, daily drama makes it hard to believe that the murres are having much success at nesting on these rocks. Last week I did see two eagles on top of the rock, but the murres did not all leave as I have witnessed on previous occasions.

To those unaware, these are just some rocks sitting offshore, but zoom in with binoculars or a spotting scope and you will see nearly every foot of the top of the rock covered by murres. The birds lay a single egg which they incubate with the egg resting on their feet.

This ongoing nature display can be witnessed nearly every day, several times a day. Bring binoculars or a bird spotting scope. Whether you witness the rocks jam-packed with murres or the eagles scattering the birds in all directions, it’s a wondrous site.