CANNON BEACH — Scopes for spotting tufted puffins will be set up on the beach between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. Monday through July 4 at the base of Haystack Rock.

The spotting scopes are for the annual Great Puffin Watch, organized by the Friends of Haystack Rock as part of Cannon Beach’s Fireworks Free Fourth celebration.

During the event, volunteer interpreters will be on-site to answer questions and point out other common seabirds around the rock, including common murres, pigeon guillemots, cormorants and black oystercatchers.

Haystack Rock is seasonally home to a colony of tufted puffins, who show up in early April to build rests, forage and raise their young — called pufflings — through the summer months.

The newly hatched pufflings emerge from the safety of their parents’ burrows starting in late June. When the summer ends, they leave in darkness to avoid the predatory eye of bald eagles and spend the winter alone or in small groups out at sea.

In recent years, seeing puffins has become rare, with regional populations declining sharply since the 1990s. However, Haystack Rock saw an increase in its puffin population last year as compared to 2022.