Project Puffin Visitor Center

Volunteers Needed

We're seeking adults and teens who are interested in ocean/seabird conservation and are comfortable speaking with visitors of all ages.

Volunteer slots are available during June-August of this year, and volunteers will receive training in ocean and seabird conservation.

To Learn More

Call (207) 596-5566 and leave a message requesting information about volunteer opportunities.

Project Puffin Visitor Center is unique.

It's a storefront center in Rockland, Maine that makes it easy for Maine visitors and residents to learn about Audubon's Project Puffin and other seabird-conservation projects in Maine-and to find out where to see Maine birds and other wildlife. Open spring through fall, Project Puffin Visitor Center is a joint project of the National Audubon Society and Maine Audubon.

There's plenty to do!

Visitors give rave reviews to the center's exhibits and activities for all ages. The walls of Project Puffin Visitor Center surround you with colorful murals, maps, and other educational information about bird conservation in Maine, plus outstanding photographs of seabirds by Project Puffin photographer Bill Scholtz.

1. Operate the camera broadcasting live images of puffins.

There's only one "puffin cam" in the world, and you can operate it yourself at Project Puffin Visitor Center. The camera is located 20 miles offshore from Rockland on remote Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge, where it records real-time images and sounds of Atlantic puffins and other seabirds broadcast on a wall-sized screen at the center. Visitors operate the camera remotely from the center, changing and zooming in on different views.

Extra bonus: Project Puffin Visitor Center staff will help you make a DVD copy of "your" puffin video to take home and show friends. You can also print your own photos snapped by the puffin cam!

2. See the award-winning short film about Project Puffin.

Customized exclusively for visitors to Project Puffin Visitor Center, film-maker Dan Breton's 20-minute video about the work of Project Puffin captures the attention of preschoolers through grandparents. There's no more enjoyable way to learn Project Puffin's history and no other opportunity anywhere to see this kind of up-close, inside-the-burrow view of the lives of Atlantic puffins in Maine.

3. Watch the kids climb into a puffin burrow.

Puffins nest underground, in burrows they dig with their bills and feet. Kids love climbing into Project Puffin Visitor Center's life-size model of a puffin burrow, where they can see a video of puffin chicks in a real burrow and hear the sounds puffins make: a low growl that can be heard underground.

4. Record scientific observations from inside a bird blind.

Step into a real bird blind-the kind Project Puffin researchers use to camouflage themselves from the birds they observe. With clipboard and binoculars in hand, you'll take on the role of an Audubon scientist, looking at broadcast images of real birds and their habitat to learn how to count birds, identify fish delivered to seabird chicks, and unravel mysteries of seabird behavior. Originally built for kids, this interactive exhibit has become a hit with adults, too.

5. Shop for great souvenirs and gifts!

Need a guide to Maine wildlife, a great children's book about seabird conservation, or a new pair of puffin socks? We've got nature- and puffin-related books, videos, and clothing, as well as educational material and information about joining and supporting Audubon's work.

About Project Puffin

Project Puffin is an international seabird conservation program with summer offices at Hog Island Audubon Center in Bremen, Maine and year-round offices in Ithaca, New York.

The National Audubon Society started Project Puffin in 1973 to learn how to bring Atlantic puffins back to the historic nesting islands they had abandoned in the Gulf of Maine.

Today, seabird restoration techniques developed by Project Puffin are helping seabirds worldwide. The project's permanent staff of six increases to include more than 50 interns and volunteers during the seabird breeding season in spring and summer.

For more information, please visit www.projectpuffin.org.