Barna Beal Norton was a legendary resident of Jonesport, Maine, who, for all of his adult life, battled with the Canadian government over ownership of Machias Seal Island, a small 15-acre island off the coast. Barna felt that the island was given to him and that he owned it. The Canadian government did not agree.

In the early ’80s, during the puffin frenzy, I happened upon Barna’s mildly advertised boat run to Machias Seal Island to observe a pretty well established colony of puffin. He had a house where birdwatching enthusiasts could bunk so the trip to the boat dock didn’t need to be accomplished the day of. I booked a room.

About the same time as my adventure, Dr. Steve Kress was working on establishing a puffin colony on Eastern Egg Rock. He had gathered a half dozen or so puffins from Canada and set them up for success fairly nearby the Hog Island Audubon facility in Bremen. Cap’n Bob Fish, for whom I had done photography, created a trip to Eastern Egg and supported Dr. Kress’s project. Puffin viewing was all the rage. Now the colony on Eastern Egg numbers nearly 200.

So, in anticipation of my Puffin safari, old uncle Bob Mitchell mooched a very substantial 300mm, F2.8 lens from Olympus with the hopes of recording some fine slide film images of the Machias Seal Island puffin population. Barna had all but promised a 100% guarantee for sightings with excellent photo opportunities. And we were off to the races.

The boat trip to Machias Seal Island was interesting. We hit some weather and a few of the other bird people “went chummin” along the way. I was lucky and managed the crossing in fairly good shape, eager to see what all the fuss was about. We transferred to a smaller boat to get to the island which was not easy. Landing could be tricky and it was. Timing with the surf was critical but with help everyone made it OK.

There were blinds on the island which could be carefully occupied so as not to annoy the local residents. I was pretty excited to haul out my impressive lens, trouble was, the birds were so accustomed to visitors that they practically landed on the blinds to say hello. In fact, they were too close for my big fat impressive lens to focus on! Fortunately, I had a few other lens selections which allowed me to focus properly. One of the images I made (a scanned conversion from slide film) is shared above. The birds were everywhere. It was pretty cool. They were fun to watch.

I’m not sure now where things stand with the ownership of Machias Seal Island but I do know that Barna Beal Norton will forever be remembered for his ambitious efforts to retain ownership despite considerable efforts to be denied. He was truly a determined character with many wonderful stories, one of which probably included a commentary about the guy with the unnecessary big lens from Boothbay!