During their moult, puffins temporarily lose the ability to fly and have little choice but to stay on the water. Fortunately, because they are diving birds, temporary submergence in rough weather is not going to trouble them. Other diving birds, including ocean-going penguin species in the southern hemisphere, can also sit out storms. Larger species may take to the air. The albatross may prefer high winds as it can travel huge distances in storms.
Smaller gulls are more likely to seek refuge on land.
But it should be remembered that gulls have become so successful at exploiting human rubbish dumps that some inland colonies in Europe have effectively lost their links to the sea. During large storms, any ocean bird species can accidentally end up being wrecked on land. In Britain, one of these species is Leach's Petrel which, although ocean-going, is often blown onto land in stormy weather.