It was quite a treat to see a Tufted Puffin in Edmonds, Washington, last week. Puffins occasionally fly over Puget Sound where they can be seen from local beaches. But a Tufted Puffin hanging around for many days is extremely rare. The Edmonds Tufted Puffin has been swimming and diving offshore for over two weeks, something that local birders can’t remember ever happening before.

Smith Island and Protection Island, about 45 miles northwest of Edmonds, are the last two Tufted Puffin nesting colonies in the Puget Sound area. You can fairly reliably see puffins in the summer on a whale or puffin watching tour that visits the waters near these islands. But it’s highly unusual to see Tufted Puffins anywhere else in the area.

The Edmonds tufted puffin has been pretty far offshore most of the time. I took the photo above of the puffin floating in the middle of the sound, with a 600mm telephoto lens. The bird is quite tiny in the photo. You can see part of the Kingston ferry dock and other structures on the Kitsap Peninsula in the background. However on several occasions, the puffin has come in quite close to shore for brief periods of time. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time for one of those closer visits and snapped a few photos of the puffin flying by.

A Closer View

Below is a shot of the puffin doing a fairly close flyby.

There have been lots of fish jumping in the sound recently, so I imagine the puffin is finding plenty of food. The abundant food must have enticed the puffin to visit Edmonds for a bit. This Tufted Puffin is one of my favorite birds to photograph from 14 years of bird photography on the beaches of Edmonds!

All photos taken with a Nikon Z8 camera and a Z 600mm f/6.3 lens.