Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Puffin around



I saw this little guy at the end of a long summer day of taking photos, and the light was getting really poor.
He was positioned right in the deepest of the shadows created by the cliffs, and trying to get pictures was actually getting quite dangerous. I assume he's a guy - you really need to see a pair together to know them apart as the female is a little bit smaller. You can see it was the height of summer because of the glorious colour of the beak - they pale and go grey by winter. Apparently they shed part of the beak, and I meant to go back to see if I could find a piece, but we have had unusually windy weather since then, making it unwise to wander round those particular clifftops.


I was overjoyed to see him. I think he's the first live puffin I have ever seen, and the colours are incredible. It almost seems that they have to be in make-up for the markings to be so perfect. The rest of the sightings that day had been seals, gulls, cormorants and razorbills, so the splash of colour was a welcome sight.

5 comments:

Pod said...

you lucky thing!

James said...

If you want to see Puffins, you should come to my home island, The Shetland Islands.

Plenty of puffins.

Mylagan said...

I'm green with envy :)
I wish I could come in Scotland (and in The Shetland Islands as well)
One more beautiful photo.

Chillzero said...

MLL, let me know if you are ever visiting. Thanks for the comment :)

jastewart - they are definitely on my to-do list.

Mylagan said...

Oh yes, I'll tell you. I LOVE Scotland and I really hope I will see your wonderful country in a near future.
Yesterday evening my husband and I went to a party called "La soirée écossaise" (you can check here if you want : http://www.onlille.com/home.html )
A Scottish man and several women learned people to dance some typical scottish dances while a little orchestra was playing. Some dances were rather complicated (and not relaxing, this is a real sport ! :)) but we had a great time !