Puffins!!

In an attempt to get back into the rhythm of blogging regularly, I have decided to write some simple blog posts that make me happy. Soooo today’s blog post is about puffins! Although I am admittedly not a huge animal lover or bird watcher, I have a soft spot for the adorable arctic puffin. I first fell in love with the puffin when I spotted them from a boat on my way to Skellig Michael off the coast of Ireland when I was in college (speaking of Skellig Michael, um, STAR WARS!!) and have loved their weird faces ever since.

I had high hopes of seeing these elusive little birds on our trip to Iceland over the summer, but had been told not to count on it. One day when we were driving up the coast we stopped at an epic lighthouse (more on that later) during a rail and hail storm. When we were getting back into our car we saw a crowd of people by a nearby cliff. We reluctantly went over to see what all the fuss was about and, to my delight, there were a few hundred puffins!!

I later learned that days with bad weather are some of the best days to see puffins because they seek shelter on land. When we were driving back to  Reykjavik the next day we stopped to see the puffins again (because, why not?) and many of them were still there hanging in the sunshine. These puffin photos were taken on both days so don’t be confused by the different weather conditions. Without further ado, the puffins:

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I should have taken a wide shot so you could see just how many puffins there were, but I didn’t think of it while I was there. (too much puffin love to think about blogging) However, here is a shot of some of them in the water and there were a ton more on the cliffs and in the air.

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Aren’t the so weirdly adorable? I am a little embarrassed of how many puffin photos I have on my hard drive, but then again, I am not.

Have you ever had a puffin sighting??

PS: Like this post? Check out Driving the Snæfellsnes Peninsula or Lake Naivasha Water Safari

20 thoughts on “Puffins!!”

  1. What wonderful puffin pictures. I was amazed by the colour and the detail…but I see you are a real photographer. When I was visiting Canada’s east coast I saw lots of puffins, but didn’t get anything like your photos. What a treat to see these.
    Kay
    An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

    Reply
    • Well, thank you Kay! Yes, you are right I am a pro photographer as my ‘day job’ so that carries over into my tourist-y photos as well 🙂 I have never been to the Canadian coast, but my trip to Iceland really piqued my interest in more arctic travel, so I may have to check it out!

      Reply
  2. On a list of the world’s most adorable creatures, puffins surely rank somewhere near the top.

    I’ve only had one puffin sighting experience and it was a bit of a surprise. Several years ago we were on a whale watching boat off the coast of Vancouver Island when the captain stopped and gasped. There was a lone puffin in the water, something he’d never seen before. Apparently the area is not known for having puffins. Alas, with global climate change there have been more puffins sighted in the area in the following years.

    Reply

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