Puffins: A Picnic With The Puffins
Updated: Dec 30, 2020
Friends! It's PUFFIN week! I thought we could take a quick look at these utterly gorgeous birds that live in the North Atlantic. They are ten inches tall (which is less than a foot, which isn't big at all, really) and weigh, in a phrase I just read, "less than a can of soda". A can of soda is the last thing that comes to mind when I look at these puffins, but there you are.
Every time I look at these birds, I smile. They are plump, puffy, and adorable. If you google these birds and check out their images, you will be shocked at how colorful they are - from their beaks to eyes to faces. These are the cutest birds on the planet, I kid you not.
And if I could, I would sit on one such hill slope and watch them (and the water) all day.
Seriously. Wouldn't you?
Think of a warm sun. Green hillside. Beautiful blue ocean. Puffins puttering around.
You sprawled out on one such hillside. The day is magnificent. You're on holiday. You are so relaxed, happy, and at peace... then one of these birds walks up to you and looks like this...
Because you are probably sitting on a piece of ripe real estate that could be the spot where they would like to dig...
Puffin: Move, please?
You: Sure. Sure. Sorry. Excuse, me. Was I in your way?
You would jump up, collect your camera, jacket (it's cold up there) and apologize again even though you know they do not understand English, and move away and find yourself another spot, a rocky cliff edge to sit down on, a bit out of all the puffins' way...
Minutes later, two puffins emerge from behind you... and one looks at you like... really?
Because you're blocking their view and the entrance to their little burrow.
You would say, "Sorry, sorry, sorry" and move away again.
Then you see this right next to you...
Like I said, there is no getting away from the rampant, all pervasive, heart-stopping cuteness.
You try to find once more at another spot...
As you're walking around, trying not to disturb your new best friends, you remember that -
There are three major varieties of puffins: Atlantic Puffin, Horned Puffin, Tufted Puffin.
Total number of puffins are approximately 3-4 million pairs in the world.
These birds are exclusively found in the North Atlantic Ocean. In North America, they live from Labrador/Newfoundland to northeastern United States. Iceland, Greenland, and Northern Russia. Most (60%) are in Iceland.
They are called "Clowns of the Sea" also "Sea Parrots". They are called "Clowns" as they are kind of awkward on land, although great swimmers. The puffins swim using their wings and use their feet as a rudder, which means, they steer with the feet. It's almost as though they fly underwater.
To show love, they rub beaks together. They touch and rub beaks - i.e., they kiss.
To show displeasure, they puff up and open beaks wide - the wider the angrier - or stamp foot. If a puffin is walking rapidly with head lowered, it means I'm passing by and do not mean trouble. If stiffly erect with slow exaggerated foot movements, it means I'm on guard and don't mess with me.
A baby puffin is a "puffling".
Then you're startled because well, you suddenly come across this...
Puffin walks by you carrying up to 10 fish in its beaks at a time (did you know the top record is 62 fish? - I couldn't find any confirmation other than this website, which is Audobon, which is a superb organization and reliable, but still... 62?).
Apparently, puffins have a raspy and coarse tongue and spines on their upper palates. This is what helps them catch and hold on to the fish. They eat herrings, hake, and sand eels.
You give up trying to find a spot. You simply gaze... absorb the innocent beauty of this bird.
The best photograph I have seen of a puffin with fish in its beak is by Sunil Gopalan, who got a National Geographic Prize for his photograph. It's brilliant. Well deserved.
See here.
Warning: Your. Heart. Will. Melt.
You find a spot close enough so you can watch, but not so close that you disturb them. As you loll around in the grass, you see a puffin fly across the blue horizon like so...
You want to watch how the bird lands because you've heard and read they are comical when they land sometimes because they fall and tumble, but this is what is going on around you...
See video below.
Yes, they are trying to find an abandoned burrow or dig a new burrow to lay an egg.
Is there love between puffins? Yes, indeed.
Is there intelligence puffins display in rearing a child/teaching him etiquette? Yes, indeed.
Puffins do not mate until 3-4 years old, but mate for life. They are very nearly monogamous. Once they find their 'special' mate, they generally stay together. They kiss each other like so:
Puffins will nest close to the sea. They find caves naturally occurring in the rocky hillsides or dig burrows using their beaks and feet, which are about three feet long, and are more like a tunnel with curves and bends.
Puffins have a sense of making their burrow and home 'cozy' and carry in grass and leaves or other material to decorate it and/or make it comfortable.
More important, puffins have a separate area for a toilet near the first bend of the burrow. It's a place the puffins create, similar to a little dugout or a hollow, where the "puffling" is taught to go to relieve himself (or herself).
That's potty training those puffins carry out inside a burrow.
Not just that, but this "toilet" area is slowly moved from near the back of the burrow to the front of the burrow, that is, near the entrance of the burrow, as the "puffling" grows older.
Talk about keeping oneself clean.
In summary: Mamma puffin lays one egg only, at the end of the burrow, at the deepest part. Sometimes, the burrows are as long as eight feet.
Pufflings, once adults, go to the ocean without Mommy and Daddy. They remain there for 3 or 4 years. They are adapted to spending years at sea alone. They have waterproof feathers and can drink and survive on saltwater. They can catch fish, of course.
Once they are a couple of years old they return to their birthplace to breed.
Breeding is the only reason they land, and during that time, their beak turns bright.
Love. Intelligence. Beauty. That's puffins for you.
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