Puffin Boulder Berm, Seal Island Live Cam

This camera watches the boulder berm on Seal Island, Maine, a bank of large rounded rocks where puffins nest in the gaps above the shore. Open sea fills the top of the frame, and waves break white over the flat ledges just beyond.

Seal Island is a 65-acre national wildlife refuge about 21 miles off the Maine coast and is closed to visitors. Glaciers smoothed these boulders and left them here some 10,000 years ago. More than 100 pairs of Atlantic puffins nest in the crevices of the berm, the densest part of the island's colony.

The view changes during the day: a wide shot follows the shore with grasses and wildflowers in front, while closer shots pick out boulders marked with painted numbers and the surf on the ledges. Puffins come ashore in the summer nesting season; in autumn the scene is mostly stone and sea.