97-12-15, Rob Saecker writes:

<< a student of my wife's asked me the other day if tufted puffin would be
considered migratory, and I have to admit being stumped by the question.
Given that they have to come onshore to breed, but can spend all of their
lives outside of breeding season far out to sea, then I would say that they
meet the simple definition of migratory. But probably not the usual
definition as applied to birds. What say the experts?
>>

Rob--
I wouldn't necessary claim to be 'the' expert, but I would probably be less
inclined to consider Tufted Puffin as truly migratory, but rather to refer to
their movements as seasonal dispersal. After the breeding season, seabirds in
general leave the nest areas and go off to spend the rest of their lives at
sea. With Tufted Puffins, they drift away, float with the currents, and some
can at times become quite pelagic where you can encounter Tufted Puffins as
well as other alcid species 1,000 miles or more away from the nearest island
or land mass; witness in addition, Horned Puffin, Parakeet, Cassin's, Least,
and Rhinoceros Auklets, and Thick-billed Murres that I've seen 500+ miles due
west of Washington and Oregon during the late autumn and winter. The
majority, mostly the locals like Rhinos and Cassin's and Common Murres do end
up in rich feeding areas, often along the shelf break and 'hot-spot' areas of
lucrative upwelling and food source, with on occasion, one of the Alaska
stragglers showing up there as well. The majority of puffins (both species)
really do become more pelagic, are relatively solitary, and very wide spread,
thus rendering their actual encounters at sea often far and few between. In
California, both Tufted and Horned Puffins may be encountered in late spring
or June even -- late wandering drifters that have been carried south in the
cold long-shore Alaska / California current system. Many Washington and
Oregon Parakeet Auklet records are from late winter thru the Spring months, I
believe. This is echoed likewise, on the east coast, with Common or Atlantic
Puffins carried south, drifting along in the cold long-shore Labrador Current
to as far south as Cape Hatteras, N.C. When it comes to other pelagic
seabirds, I might think that many of the southern procellariforms
(shearwaters, petrels, gadfly petrels) that undertake huge migration paths
covered in a short period of time to routinely "winter" in the northern
hemisphere are migratory.

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA USA)