Horned Puffins

Yesterday was beautiful up here in Dutch Harbor, sunny and in the 60's. After work I went out in search of some puffins, I had seen some swimming off in the harbor the day before and wanted to try and get some photos. I was driving out to Summers Bay when I saw some puffins swimming out in the water, I grabbed my binoculars and started to watch them. They were Horned Puffins, there were about 6 of them floating and diving in the water. They were too far out for me to get any photos of so I was just watching them for 5 or 10 min. Two of them started running in the water, when they got enough speed they left the water and flew into the air right toward me. I could not believe it they were coming right at me, I quickly put the truck in park and grabbed my camera and got out of the truck. They looked like they were going to land the the cliff right above me next to the road. But just before they went to land on the cliff, they changed their minds and flew off toward the water. They made a big circle out over the water and started to head back toward the cliff. I got my camera ready and got one sighted up and started firing. They didn't land this time either, they flew back out toward the water and circled again. They did this four or five times before one of them finally landed on the cliff. I crossed the road as far as I could so I could see up the rocky cliff, but the road drops 20 or 30 feet onto the rocky shore. So I was just on the edge of the road trying to find where this Puffin had landed, but I could not see him. Before too long I saw his bright yellow and red bill peek out from the rocks. He wanted to see what I was up too down below. He stood there and watched me for some time. After a little while the other puffin came in for a landing and they just both stood there watching me until a huge raven came by and flushed them out. I was really excited to finally see some puffins this close.
Photo captured on Canon 30D, Canon 300mm lens, 1.4X TC on SanDisk digital film.