Puffins, like auks, have really taken the subarctic zone and run with it. They've made their home at least as far north as Iceland and Greenland. So while Orkney, which has a lot of rocks and few trees, might seem an unlikely setting for a bird colony, it's not extreme for them. They've taken to it.
By the way, researching for this post I found out that at least one person has gone online to ask how puffins taste. I'm not hurrying to find out firsthand.
2 comments:
That was a nice video with some wonderful pictures of puffins. They really are delightful little creatures.
When we lived in Halifax I heard about the puffins that nest in Newfoundland and figured going to see them would be a nice way to spend a day or two. Boy was I mistaken, not about the puffins, but simply having misjudged just how far away St. John's and the puffin pufferies (?) were. First you'd have to drive to the top of the NS peninsula then get on a ferry that takes six to eight hours to the Channel Port aux Basques after which there's another very long drive around the northern coast of Newfoundland. It probably would have been a good trip but 22 hours was too much and that ferry ride can be very choppy.
So I looked at pictures and read about them instead:
https://sightdoing.net/newfoundland-puffins/
I agree that they're delightful. We're lucky to have them in the upper half of the Northern Hemisphere.
What's that saying? "The map is not the territory." (Credit to Alfred Korzybski for that one, although I'd thought it might have been Napoleon.) Maps tend to be a lot smaller than territories, which can give you false expectations about how far away something is and how much time it takes to get there, even if you know better. Yeah, sometimes it's better to just chill at home. Or more doable at least.
Nice picture of the puffins all hanging around on that island cliff. Imagine what it would be like camping there when they all landed.
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