Friends stroll midst the wild flowers behind the sand dunes of a Maritime beach. The air is filled with the scent of salt spray, wafted past the beach grass from the breakers on the nearby beach. Queen Anne's Lace blooms around the weathered pole fence that parallels the walker's path. The well worn path has witnessed many such strolls and a myriad of happy conversations.

Spending only a few months on land each year to raise its young, the Atlantic Puffin is a true seabird. They choose rugged, rocky  islands off our maritime coasts, their remoteness offering a secure nesting site. There, great colonies of thousands can be seen on the steep cliffsides, courting, sparring and taking off  to join the circling throng as they fly to out sea to return with a meal for their brood.

On the chill ice of a quiet harbor a mother harbor seal watches over her single pup. In her true element, the great ocean, she is fast and fluid, her mottled markings making her practically invisible. Yet to the ice surface her instincts nave brought her, for it is here that the next generation must be born.