“Nothin’ but Puffins” by John McDonald
Down East Books, Magazine, OnlineISBN 978-0-89272-547-2
$12.95
Who doesn’t like puffins, really. This 5½ by 5½-inch picture book will make you smile, even without reading the mildly-humorous one-liners tagged to every picture.
It’s the pictures that will make you sit up and take notice, particularly if you’ve ever attempted to photograph these clowns of the sea.
Few of us have ever had the opportunity to look a puffin in the eye from only feet away, so a 64-page book of puffin pictures is a bird-watcher’s dream.
I count myself as one of a small group of people who’ve had the chance to watch puffins — from a blind on Petit Manan Island and from the cockpit of my kayak just off Matinicus Rock where the colorful “sea parrots” approach close enough that I could have reached out and touched them.
Being able to grab a handful of colorful pictures by photographers Thomas O’Neil and Nancy McGinnis (who shot the bulk of them) along with contributions from Stefan Reicheneder, Ella Mullins, Stig Nygaard, Jorg Hempel, Steve Deger and Eric Christensen, is a real treat. You’ll even get a couple of cameo appearances by some handsome razorbills.
If you didn’t get the opportunity to get out on a puffin watch this summer, here’s your chance to get a close look. At least it should hold you until next spring when they come back from their winter at sea.
You may have to wait a bit. I see Down East is temporarily out of stock. Go to www.downeast.com to order.