Puffling

Originally uploaded by r.cross27

Stretching her or his wings to fly… what a sweet little puffling.

The caption reads:

Puffin chick, Taken at skomer Island, pembrokeshire

puffin chick

Originally uploaded by >*Jan*<

What an adorable picture! Doesn’t the mama or papa look like they are ready to pounce on the photographer? Protective parent! This little puffling is loved.

Here is what the caption reads:

This rather punky looking bird is a baby puffin. They are rarely seen as they live in the burrow and then shortly before flying out to sea they can be seen flapping furiously, stretching their wings before the first testing flight off the cliff.
I was so pleased to see this

Puffling

Originally uploaded by kirsty_halbert

The caption reads:

Puffins at the RSPB Sanctuary in the Hebridies… I heard one little girl say to her friend: “Look! Pufflings!” to which her friend replied: “It’s puff-INS…. DUH!”

Shetland.org has set up a live Puffin web cam and they are currently waiting for some pufflings to hatch! They are thought to be hatching between June 10th and June 15th! This means we can actually WATCH a puffling being hatched LIVE! How fantastic would that be!? A miracle for certain. And it is not like these little sea clowns won’t amuse us in the meanwhile, right?

Click on the link below or either picture to get to the Puffin cam

Talking to the Zookeepers pays off!! Next time you visit a zoo—say hello and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Tufted puffin couple at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium currently has 20 tufted puffins in its exhibit, 9 males and 11 females. The tufted puffins range in age from 1 to 31. They currently have the oldest living puffin in captivity at 31 years of age!! He is only 3 years younger than me! =) Not only is he the oldest living puffin in captivity but tufted puffins are thought to only be capable of producing and raising chicks until their mid-twenties but this 31-year-old tufted puffin is a proud papa this year! The Pt. Defiance Zoo and Aquarium also has the oldest living female in captivity at 27 years old. And if all this isn’t enough to make you get excited they also have 3 tufted puffin pairs that they believe are raising chicks this year. I wrote ‘they believe’ because the zookeepers try to let the tufted puffins raise the chicks as naturally as possible so the zookeepers do not check on their progress. They wait and are surprised by the little ones in the exhibit. How fun is that?!?

This is one of the tufted puffin mothers who had a chick this year

The youngest tufted puffin chick at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium as of August 2009!

The Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium is currently in the middle of some intensive training with their puffins as well. In the past year they have been training them to eat from the zookeepers’ hands so that they can better deliver any vitamins and medications the puffins may need. The training has been extremely successful so far. Part of this training for the last 6 months included working on scale training the puffins (training the puffins to step on a scale in order to get more frequent weights) instead of having to catch the puffins and hold them to get their weight. Catching them is extremely stressful for the puffins and so the the new weighing techniques has been very effective for both the zookeepers and the puffins. The Pt. Defiance Zoo now has weights on all birds except for about 4.

It is amazing what some hard work can produce! These quirky adorable little birds are definitely smarter than the zookeepers realized. I, for one, am looking forward to discovering more about the little pufflings and the progress of the training at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium!

For more information on the puffin exhibit (within the Rocky Shores exhibit) at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium—you can visit them online at their official website or in person at:

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium
5400 N Pearl St # D Ruston, WA 98407-3296
(253) 591-5337

What are the hours and days of operation to see the puffins at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium? The zoo is open from 9:30-6:00 until September 7. After that the zoo is open from 9:30-5:00. The birds can be viewed any time during those hours, their exhibit is never closed.

When are the best times to go to see the puffins at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium if you have questions?
They feed their puffins 3 times a day during breeding season, twice a day during non-breeding season. As of right now, they are fed at approximately 8:00, 12:00-1:00, and 3:00-3:30. They will discontinue the last feeding during non-breeding season. This isn’t really definitive, but there is not a set schedule to when they feed their animals but this is a good guess. I will update you when I find out more…

Lundi Pysja! by Hillary

I stumbled across this photo on google and thought it was so adorable I had to share. It is not just the photo but the story which you can read all about here (and see more photos!!!!)

Four little pufflings were found waiting outside a fish and chips restaurant in Edinburgh after losing their way from the shore. This is a common thing in towns with puffin colonies. The little baby puffins have a difficult time navigating their way around.

Read more here.

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))

Puffins travel in large packs but they are only around for about five months a year—going out to sea the rest of the time. So, catch them while you can generally March to July—these months may vary depending on where you are in the world. They only come in to mate, nest, incubate their egg (yes, generally they only have one) in the burrow and then they are off!

Both sexes incubate for 39-43 days with shifts of about 32 hours each, and the puffling is hatched with a covering of down. At about two months old the young puffin goes off by itself. Back to the sea for the puffin family—although not necessarily together.

Sharing is Sweet – Puffins in Love

Originally uploaded by idg

Puffin love is enduring and everlasting.

Puffin couple stay together for life. They start having puffin babies (breeding) when they are about five years old. There is no definitive lifespan for the puffin. Some still breed at 10 years old and some have been known to live almost 40 years. So, these couples really are in it for a lifetime.

Puffins share. They share food. They take turns digging and protecting their burrows and they even share the duties of caring for their children. Both the male and the female help to incubate the eggs by taking turns holding them tight under their wing, where there are small patches of bare-skin with lots of blood supply. Once the baby pufflings are born the parents also share the work in feeding them. One keeps it warm and protects and the other collects its food. They do everything together.

When puffins fly out to sea, if they cannot find their mate, they will meet back at the burrow and fly back to sea together to breed. To show affection they often rub their beaks together, commonly known as “billing”. They also have been heard cooing at one another. How cute is that?

Puffins are romantic birds, aren’t they?

Sources:
Angel, Heather. Puffins. New York: Evans Mitchell Books, 2007.

http://www.alaskastock.com/Puffin_Photos.asp

http://www.audubon.org/bird/puffin/puffins.html