We just finished a wonderfully, delicious lunch of fish and chips at The Bandon Fish Market and decide to take a ride to the Bandon Beach overlook. Karla and I want to walk on the beach, find treasurer rocks and look for birds.

As we pull into the parking lot, we notice a man standing on the sidewalk near our car with a tripod and scope. We all began trying to figure out what he is doing. He pulls out a book and proceeds to flip through its pages. A birder we guess. After a few minutes he walks over to his car and pops the trunk.

Given the overcast and windy conditions, I realize a walk on the beach isn’t going to happen. As we are getting  jackets, cameras and binoculars out of the car, I am thinking why bother, because I know we are not going down those stars onto the beach.

The man with the scope is loading his equipment in to his car and Karla walks over and begins a conversation with him.  I notice she is speaking with him and I walk over to join them.

Karla tells me, “he is trying to positively identify a Western Gull to add to his birding life list.”

Karla then tells him “Sheila is looking for a Tufted Puffin!”

“A Tufted Puffin” he responds. “I just spotted a pair a few minutes ago.”

I exclaim with joy “where?”

He says, “I will show you with my spotting scope.”

One of my goals while traveling in Oregon is to see a Tufted Puffin. My new friend gets his scope back out of his trunk and begins setting it up.  The three of us are still trying to find the pair when two ladies walk up to us.

They ask, “what are you looking at?”

“We are trying to find the Tufted Puffin” we tell them.

One of the women then says, “we just saw them and you should walk out on the point for a better view of their nesting hole.”

My new friend says, “Sure, lets go out on the point and I will bring my scope.” My heart begins to beat quicker.

My new friend and I turn to my wimps, I mean group and I ask, “would you guys like to walk out onto the point?”

Hubby and Larry already begin to turn toward the car and Karla shakes her head no!

I look at Karla, “are you sure?” she tells me, “I have already seen a Puffin.”

Remember, it is cloudy and extremely windy and my wimps, I mean group, doesn’t want to stay out in the “extreme” conditions.  A little wind and overcast skies isn’t going to keep me from walking out to the point!

My new friend and I begin our trek toward the point high above the ocean, with huge rocks jetting out from the ocean floor in the distance. The wind is blowing and it is cool.  Looking out across the waves toward the rocks all the discomfort is forgotten. The rocks are covered with birds! Gulls, Cormorants, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemots and hopefully a lovely, pair of Tufted Puffins!

As we walk along, I ask him, “where are you from?”

He tells me, “Alaska, and I am touring the Oregon coast in hopes of spotting new birds.”

I tell him, “the Tufted Puffin will be a new life list bird for me.”

We select a spot and he sets up his spotting scope. He knows where to look and it doesn’t take him long before he finds the nesting hole. He shows me the rocks the Tufted Puffins were going in and out of earlier. I look through the scope and all I see are rocks, no Puffins.

We continue watching the rock opening hoping to see one pop out. As we wait we scan the rocks to see what other birds we can spot. We spot a Pigeon Gullimont – another new one for me, #370 – and some Common Murre.

Back to the Tufted Puffin nesting rocks – a head pops out. I jump with joy and shout, “Come out!”

I will the little Puffin, “come out, come out, come out.”

We watch as it looks left, then right, then left again. It doesn’t appear interested in coming out of its warm home.

Just then Karla comes running up behind us, “I haven’t seen the Tufted Puffin, I have only seen the Horned”

I say, “Okay, take a look, you can see its head sticking out the opening between the rocks.”

We continue taking turns watching the little puffin as it surveys the cliffs, with just his head sticking out of the hole.

After a few minutes, we tell our new friend, “we need to go” and I am thinking to myself, our wimps are waiting in the car. {grins, I love them}

I take one more look at the rocks and the bobbing puffin head and can’t believe what happens, it walks out of the rocks toward the cliff’s edge, takes a poop and waddles back toward the hole and I am yelling, “its out, its out, its out”.

Karla takes a turn looking through the scope and our new friend has to hurry to readjust the scope following the Puffin’s little journey. She manages to see it out of the hole!

The puffin stays out just long enough to walk out to the cliff’s edge, take a poop and walk back into the hole. It disappears!

It was a thrill! Number 371 – Tufted Puffin seen in Bandon, Oregon.

 

I can’t thank my new friend enough for taking me over to the point and setting up his birding scope.

Thank you Karla for starting a conversation with the man from Alaska!

And, thank you Tufted Puffin for needing to take a poop!