lundapysja (puffin) photo taken by Konný Guðjónsdóttir on flickr

A note from the photographer:

The story behind this picture is that I live in Westman islands, Iceland and in august every year the small puffins
fly to the lights in the town and the people (mostly children) go around and save them and send again to sea.

I found this one on my front door step one, one night when I come home and we put in a box for a night and the next morning we went to the shore to let the puffin go. But I took a picture of it before.

For few years ago we rescue a lot of puffins, from maybe 5 to 100 for one night. But now there are so few puffins that
it´s a luck to find one.

Thanks again to the photographer. You can check out this photo and more of hers by clicking here.

Puffins made in ASCII by Joan Stark.

-=[ auk ]=-  12/96
          .--.
         / ,~a`-,
         \ \_.-"`
          ) (
        ,/ ."\
       /  (  |
      /   )  ;
 jgs /   /  /
   ,/_."` /`
    /_/\ |___
       `~~~~~`

-=[ puffin ]=-  modified by llizard

         .-"-.
        /  ,~a\_
        \  \__))>
        ,) ." \
       /  (    \
      /   )    ;
 jgs /   /     /
   ,/_."`  _.-`
    /_/`"\\___
         `~~~`

The pufflings can become disorientated by lights on the Scottish isle

People talented at sewing are being asked to make cotton drawstring bags to help save lost puffin chicks on the remote Scottish isle of St Kilda.

Dozens of the baby birds become disorientated each year by lights from buildings housing ranger staff and end up inland, instead of out to sea.

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) said rangers would use the bags to rescue the animals and keep them safe.

The pufflings will be then taken to the coast and released back into the water.

Read more…

((Original Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7793919.stm))

Scientists are worried that puffins are getting underweight and dying because they haven’t got enough fish to eat in the North Sea.

The Firth of Forth in Scotland is home to one of the UK’s largest puffin colonies.

But experts who’ve been counting the seabirds there say their numbers have fallen by about a third in five years.

They think climate change could be to blame for the birds not having enough to eat.

Read more…

((Original Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7430000/newsid_7434900/7434966.stm))

Scientists are gluing tags to puffins to try and figure out why their numbers are dropping.

Puffin numbers had been rising over the last few years, but last year showed a sudden sharp drop.

So researchers on the UK’s biggest puffin colony, the Farne islands, are gluing little recording devices to the birds to track where they go.

Read More…

((original source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8120000/newsid_8127900/8127972.stm))

The experts believe they could find puffins even older than 34 in the future.

Ornithologists say they have found the oldest known puffin in Europe on an island off the west coast of Scotland.

The experts who were on a bird-ringing expedition in the Shiant Isles in the Hebrides said they have discovered a puffin first ringed over 34 years ago.

The puffin, caught on Rough Island, was re-captured by the same ringer, Ian Buxton, who first ringed it and many others, on 28 June, 1975.

Previously the longest-lived puffin was a 33-year-old from Iceland.

Experts from the bird-ringing group have been visiting the Shiant islands since 1970.

During this year’s expedition, they came upon two old-age puffins – one at least 32, the other more than 34 and the second bird beat the European record.

There could even be a handful remaining alive from those ringed back in 1970, so there is potential to break the record again in the next few years

Experts involved in the British Trust for Ornithology’s bird ringing scheme said it was possible even older puffins could be discovered in the next few years.

David Steventon, founder of the Shiants Auks ringing group and a member of ringing expeditions to the island in the 1970s, said: “These longevity records were almost inevitable, as ringing data shows that adult survival rates are about 92%.

“Therefore we would expect that about 25 of the 441 birds ringed in 1975 will still be alive and could be recaught in 2009.

“There could even be a handful remaining alive from those ringed back in 1970, so there is potential to break the record again in the next few years.”

He added: “Compared to recent years, the puffins are having a good breeding season this year, bringing in good-sized sand eels for their young.”

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8156866.stm

If you visit the Bandon Dunes along Oregon’s rocky coastline you will see the puffin adorning signs and entrances because puffins once crowded these shore cliffs. For awhile the tufted puffin population suffered and the birds were not as plentiful but as of late the vast numbers of Puffins on the Bandon Dunes have been growing again. This is a good story amongst the many sad ones about puffin populations disappearing, dwindling coast-after-coast.

There are reports of the Tufted Puffin coming in early spring and summer to Coquille Point which stretches the coastline between Sixth Street SW and 11th Street SW in Bandon, Oregon. It is one of the more accessible places to observe wildlife according to Jan Lee. You can part at the west end of 11th Street SW and there you will find a stairway to the beach. Bring binoculars and your camera!

But the puffin fun in Oregon doesn’t stop in Bandon. According to the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Oregon puffins can be found in various places along the Oregon coast. This is the paragraph their site had on Tufted Puffins:

Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) – The Tufted Puffin is found along the Pacific coast from Alaska to southern California. They nest along the entire Oregon coast on coastal rocks where soil topped islands exist. Two thirds of the birds in Oregon nest at Three Arch Rocks NWR. Tufted Puffins have the most extensive latitudinal distribution of all the alcids ranging from Japan, through the Aleutian Islands south to Oregon, and southern California. They are colonial nesters although they will nest singly. Tufted Puffins need enough of a slope to give them enough lift to take off into the air from the rock or nest site location. Although they are not the most graceful birds in the air they make up for it under the water where they can truly fly. Their nests are burrows in the soil that can be up to six feet long. The nest itself is at the end of the burrow, usually lined with dry grasses and feathers. In April, laying begins with a clutch of a single egg. Incubation is 44 days by both sexes. Young will fledge at forty-nine days but can leave the burrow before that time. Anchovies, smelt, sand lance, and herring make up most of their diet. The young are fed small fish that are carried in the adults beaks three or four at a time. The Tufted Puffin molts the top layer its colorful beak every summer after chicks have fledged marking the end of the breeding season. Tufted Puffins winter at sea and are rarely seen from land during that time. The Tufted Puffin’s longevity record is six years. A good location for viewing these birds is Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach.

What better to adorn your stained glass windows than puffins!?! The Bridport Stained Glass company in Bridport agrees. Check out the stained glass they made with puffins:

Brenda Rowe in Canada agrees:

Puffin Suncatcher by Brenda Rowe

The “Winged Heart” company in the UK also agrees:

We bet these windows will make some house, store or space more beautiful, more livable. The puffin is worthy of architecture, stained glass and living art.

Puffin box

Originally uploaded by wiccked

Puffins! Puffins! And more puffins! These puffin postcards don the most adorable sea bird alive… the puffin! The first is a clipping from a box–a cereal box, I believe. It has some puffin trivia worth reading. And it was deemed shareworthy by the person who uploaded it to flickr, wiccked. We at Puffinpalooza.com agree.

Pete Puffin was happy to see us…
Originally uploaded by FarStarr

Pete had moved so far from Bangor that he never got many visitors. He was excited when we arrived and explained that the dry heat was helping his allergies, but the fish weren’t as tasty.

Created for the swapbot swap “When Mail and Art Collide” from a calendar page, a magazine cut-out, and a quote from a 1960′s crime novel. The whole thing is backed with a piece of recycled box from work.

(Story from Flickr photographer who shared this)

3 bird cards in an envelope tag 20.2.2009
Originally uploaded by Rohtola

The last is a postcard—I would love to receive one of these. I guess we will have to visit Bretagne. I’ll save my little fishy for a trip!  Of course, I could go see puffins on my own coast (the coast of Western Washington State) it might be a bit closer and cheaper.

This was just a sweet photograph. I love the color of the water and the position of the puffin. Puffins are excellent swimmers! Puffins can stay underwater up to a minute but generally they only stay under for 20 to 30 seconds. They sort of fly underwater which makes them swim pretty fast and makes up for their clumsy flying skills in the air. The puffin often crash lands when it is flying through the air but can reach speeds up to 55 mph. Luckily,  their wings suit them well for the water and help them swim to catch up to 10 fish with every dip and allowing them to plunge up to 200 feet deep in one dive!