Rogue puffins visit NH to source snacks, but breeding colonies unlikely for the Granite State

MAINE MORNING STAR • July 24, 2026

Every summer, New Hampshire’s seacoast draws visitors in droves, from sunbathing tourists to ravenous greenhead horseflies. Less expected are Atlantic puffins, which are rare in the state year-round and in summertime become so uncommon that a sighting triggers a statewide birdwatching alert. One of those alerts went out early this July. Most likely, the seabird’s journey to the Granite State was gastronomically motivated, said Don Lyons, director of conservation science at the Audubon Seabird Institute in Bremen, Maine. Scant records make it hard to say whether there ever were puffin colonies in what is now New Hampshire. Future sightings of brave puffins far afield in places like New Hampshire will depend on the conservation of nesting colonies where they exist already, in Maine and northward.