Visit Project Puffin for the 2000 Seabird Update. There are several tour boats that operate trips to the puffin colonies from different points along the coast of Maine during the Summer months. Adult puffins come ashore sometime in April or May to raise 1 chick and are gone sometime around mid-August until next year. Generally these are boat tours and you will not be able to go ashore. Machias Seal Island is the only nesting site where visitor access is possible .
Sanctuary regulations restrict daily landings and space is quite limited.
The puffin watching season begins around Memorial Day and goes until early to mid-August. Patterson Cruises to Machias Seal Island. Here Cruises to Machias Seal Island. Cruises to Eastern Egg Rock. None of the puffin breeding colonies are near land or close to the population centers of Southern or Central Maine.