Newfoundland Puffin Tour
Puffins, whales, & more
We're a member of the
Puffin Patrol
, and release young fledging puffins back into the wild. Depending on the season, you can help us release baby puffins yourself. Hold a puffin in your own hands!
The Molly Bawn
whale & puffin boat tour
is just 40 mins from
St. John's
. Every tour is a great opportunity to see
puffins
up close.
Read more about the Puffin Patrol here.
Atlantic Puffins
Atlantic Puffins
are small, colourful
seabirds with webbed feet. They live exclusively on the edges of the Atlantic Ocean, inhabiting tiny islands. Puffins swim on the surface of the ocean, and feed on small fish by diving underwater.
Our boat tour travels to the
largest Atlantic Puffin colony
in North America. With the seabirds fluttering all around the boat, it's a sight to see.
(Photo by Richard Bartz, [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons)
The Puffin Patrol
Our crew is an important part of the
Puffin Patrol
, a group of volunteers devoted to rescuing puffins, and
safely releasing them back into the Atlantic Ocean.
Members of the
Witless Bay Puffin and Petrel Patrol
monitor the roads at night to capture all lost chicks and keep them safe until the next morning. They are measured, weighed, banded, and released for a better second start of their new life.
Molly Bawn crew members are proud puffin patrollers every night, and also assist with releasing them out to the open sea. Often there are too many predatory gulls near the beach, formerly used for a land-based release. When this is the case,
we dedicate the first run of the day to give the little puffins a lift far enough out of the reach of these gulls before they are released, to give them a better chance to grow up and come back to the islands after 5 years.
Read more about the Puffin Patrol.
A White Puffin — NEW!
Meet Waldo, the rare
White Puffin
— the only one ever seen in Newfoundland!
The boat tour has come across this
rare bird
numerous times over the years. We beleive this puffin is an albino, and is a must see for every birder.
Tour details
Duration:
Approximately 1 hour, and 15 minutes
Cost:
Adult: $50
Under 16: $45
Senior: $45
Children under 5: Free
Private rental: $450
Tours include the chance for:
- Puffin boat tour
- Whale watching
- Iceberg boat tour
(depending on the season)
5-star rating on Trip Advisor
“Wonderful Experience”
— What makes this tour special is the small size and the enthusiasm of the crew. The boat dock is located in a lovely little cove in Mobile. On our tour we saw puffins
, eagles, and mink whales. The small numbers allowed for a commentary that met the needs of the group. (August 17, 2013)
“Seabirds, seabirds, seabirds (and whales)!”
— We finally got to see whales – a pair of humpbacks – but the really exceptional thing, compared with previous whale-watching tours we've taken? The birds ... thousands of them! We saw puffins
(including a cute little chick), gannets, murres, seagulls and many more. (August 5, 2015)