Blizzard Brings Puffins in Spectacular Numbers

The Blizzard of 2013 left in its wake plenty of damage, but it also brought to our coast an impressive variety and number of birds. In the Weekly Bird Report, Vern Laux tallies the sightings, which include a count of 52 Atlantic Puffins - what he calls, "far and away the most ever seen from anywhere on the Cape and Islands." Also noteworthy were hundreds of other Alcids, including over a thousand Razorbills, a single Dovekie, and a Thick-billed Murre. Other interesting seabirds included 4 tubenoses in the form of Northern Fulmars, 65 Northern Gannets, and 105 pelagic gulls called Black-legged Kittiwakes.