Thursday, September 25, 2008

Huffin' and Puffin


It's no secret that I want to see puffins in "real" life. Until that's possible, I am enjoying them the best ways possible.

If you don't know anything about them, give 'em a Google and enjoy. The children of Iceland have a Puffin Rescue:

About the time pufflings are 6 weeks old, their parents stop feeding them and return to the sea. The pufflings get hungry and want to go fishing. They use moonlight to find their way to the sea, but some little pufflings are confused by nearby city lights and end up heading away from the ocean and towards the city! This is quite dangerous because they can get run over by cars or be eaten by foxes and hawks.

Every year the children in Iceland rescue the puffin chicks. They carefully collect the pufflings, put them in boxes and take them home for the night. In the morning the children return the babies to the beach and release them to the safety of the sea and the promise of their first catch.



Now, isn't that sweet? And "pufflings" is just a darn cute name.

Due to their colorful beaks, puffins are also known as "sea parrots" or "clowns of the sea," however these sea birds spend the majority of their time at sea diving for food and come to shore for breeding and raising their single yearly puffling.

And now, guess what? Gary, from The Potter's Blog, has created me a beautiful puffin mug - check it out! Thank you, Gary - you are an amazing artist!








10 comments:

Adventure girl said...

I love that story. I didn't know that!
How sweet and cool of him to make you that mug! That is awesome! Congrats!

Gary's third pottery blog said...

eeeek, amazing?
Yes, I love puffins now too.....

Wep said...

Cute story!! And I love puffins too!

MissKris said...

Oh, what a great story to start my day with, now that I'm officially up! I absolutely LOVE bird life of any kind tho I am not as dedicated as my younger brother who travels all over the world in search of birds. He and his wife will be leaving for Ecuador next month and taking a bird-trip down into the Amazon River basin deep in the jungle to 'find' one bird that's quite elusive. He was here the other day and 'searched' out a photo of it for me but I can't remember its name. Me, I sit here and enjoy all the bird traffic at my bird bath and feeders outside the front windows and enjoy my brother's photos when he gets home...they're amazing! Thank you for 'enlightening' me about the puffins...I really knew nothing about them outside of the fact that they're so pretty.

DARE to Rescue! said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

The same thing happens with baby sea turtles. Poor little things! I'd never heard the term 'pufflings', SO cute! They are adorable, we saw them at Sea World. I hope you get to see some in real life soon!

Melissa B. said...

These sure are cute critters! What a sweet tale you've told us--thanks!

Aunt Julie said...

Ohhhhhh, Gary is One. Talented. Guy! Loved the story, too. These birds are too darn cute!

Ritch in Love said...

Wow, that is amazing about those little creatures. They are just darling, aren't they?
I learn something new everytime I visit your happy blog!

J'Ollie Primitives said...

awwww, pufflings! how cute is that?

 
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