atlantic puffin

Reminds me of villagers sunbathing back home. I know, it sounds odd coming from an Indian, but my village is 2000m above sea level. And there is no central heating. Hence its pretty cold during winter (we don't get snow where I am from, but water freezes in the winter).

A break in the weather allowed us to get in a trip to Bempton Cliffs . Unfortunately a bit too early in the season so no Pufflings hatched and no Puffins returning to the nest site with beaks full of sand eels . A first for me so pleased anyway .

with Bling

Me photographing Puffins on Lunga, I could happily of stayed there all day but the boat trip only alows a couple of hours or so ... photo taken by my wife Patricia

Atlantic Puffin, ad. Rouzic ( Brittany). June 2015.

Atlantic Puffins, adults near their colony. Rouzic ( Brittany). June 2015.

An Atlantic Puffin, on the rocks at Bempton Cliffs.

I could not use a tripod for this image. I wished the Red Campion was about 3 feet nearer the bird in order to get the right kind of blur.

I visited Bempton Cliffs (RSPB Reserve) recently with Ivan Ellison. We could not have picked a worse day weather wise ...sea fog , wind and rain etc. However Puffins do not often land close for full framers and I'm glad that this one did. The shooting angle over the cliff was too steep for...

This guy was talking to himself! Quite a few Puffins are now carrying Sand-eels suggesting that the first of the Pufflings have hatched!

Managed to get a day off work to visit the Isle of May a few weeks ago. It was raining on the mainland but for about an hour we had glorious blue skies on the island and Puffins overhead.

Taken at Bird Island Nova Scotia, Canada.

Atlantic Puffin pair sitting on a rock in the Farne Islands, Northumbria, UK. <Image scanned from film transparency>

Sunset.

Atlantic Puffins are now back on their breeding colonies.

........the answer is that they have a semi-rigid rasping tongue which pushes already caught sandeels up onto spikes on the hard palate -this frees up the mandibles (especially the lower) to snap at the next victim! (The graphics & the inspiration for the caption are courtesy of my 12...

Despite overcast weather & light drizzle massive numbers of Sandeels were being shipped in to the Isle of May Puffin colony (which this year is estimated to be about 40,000 pairs). So many Sandeels were being brought in that the island's Puffinlets were surely close to popping!!! ;) As a...

The weather was very overcast with frequent showers on my last trip to the Isle of May BUT this was more than compensated for by the sight of so many Puffins laden with Sandeels!!! This year seems to have seen a recovery of the Sandeel population with lots of larger specimens being brought in...

These boys were like a parody of the local football supporters club -wearing their team colours, hurling abuse at the referee & pointing to the penalty spot!

The Isle of May holds the UK's largest single breeding colony of Puffins -which reached 69,300 pairs in 2003. Unfortunately numbers have crashed over the last few years dropping to 41,000 pairs last year. The decline is believed to be due to the collapse of sandeel stocks linked to warming of...