Thursday, June 11, 2009

Puffin Watching



This weekend was the Harbor Festival, so we joined in the festivities. When Colby saw the advertisement for a puffin tour, he was sold. We rode a small boat out only 15 minutes from Reykjavik where we came upon a small island that inhabited 30,000 puffins (Darcy wasn't a fan of the life-jacket).

Our guide told us that in August, the puffins will begin to fly south for the summer, and many of the babies will get confused by the city lights of Reykjavik and crash-land here. When that happens, it's time for the children of Reykjavik to launch the Puffin Patrol—basically a search and rescue operation for the befuddled birds. The children capture them, keep them safe for a few days, and then release them. There is a competition every year for the heaviest puffin, largest puffin, ect. (Okay, Icelanders, is this a true story?) It was fun to see them first-hand, and not just on a post-card. Fauths, next trip you'll have to schedule your trip between June and August!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

WOW - I am going to do some research on the "Puffins"....They are beautiful....