3/4/2023 0 Comments Puffin bird![]() Very occasionally one of these (apparently) totally tedious guillemots will turn out to be an absolutely charming and captivating puffin. Just scan these auks pattering away from the bow-wash. This is a fine way of spending part of a sea-passage in Scotland. Same applies if you are casually puffin-spotting from the rail of, say, a CalMac or Northlink ferry. No, I don’t mean it flies feet first, I just mean the orange is surprisingly conspicuous. I’d say you’ll recognise a fly-by puffin by the orange legs ahead of the beak. ![]() There are black and white auks whirring below. Fulmars float by superciliously looking down their tube noses at you. This one’s just caught a fish.Īnyway, there you are on the top of a cliff. Nobody ever drooled over a black guillemot, but I like ’em. Tysties are inconspicuous and tend to be in small groups. Remember? The boring old guillemots, tedious razorbills – and let’s not forget the black guillemot or tystie, much as I know you want to… And, yes, they are surprisingly tame when you get close.īut remember, some of the places where you might see puffins are pretty much mixed in with where you’ll see the rest of their cousins. You think you know what a puffin looks like? Well, of course you do if the little beast wanders up to you and looks cute. But feel free to make up your own puffin-speak. Puffins in captivity are kept in puffinariums. They are considered to be so cute that they have their own cutesy kind of vocabulary.īaby puffins are, apparently, pufflings. There they are, all these auks, doing their best to be entertaining – and all you want to see is the guy with that strap-on stupid beak? ![]() There are hundreds and hundreds of auks packed together – a seabird city spectacle that assaults all senses (Boy, this birdy biomass sure can smell fishy.) But wait…Īt that point the visitor will say ‘So where are the puffins?’ Small wonder the guillemots get jealous. In front of them is a cliff, covered, stacked, thronged with guillemots (and razorbills), all braying and pecking and shuffling in the confined ledges. Why? Because – and I’ve seen it myself so often – picture this scene. There are lots more Scottish puffin locations.Īnyway, we call the most common species of auk a guillemot, the name deriving from a diminutive version of the French name Guillaume (William).Īnd the thing to remember about guillemots, the puffin’s cousin, is that they are really jealous of their colourfully-beaked relative. Obviously I can’t put in every cliff-face. (Pictured here) Some places to see puffins in Scotland. The legs and feet are duller and pink.Where to see puffins in Scotland – some examples of the locations. Juveniles look like adults but are smaller and have a duller bill with fewer horny plates which give it a long, pointed shape. The legs and feet are duller turning yellowish. The bill sheds its outer horny plates and is smaller and thinner and grey in colour. The face is dark grey with darker marks around the eyes. In winter, the plumage is duller tinged with grey on the upperparts and the white belly turns grey. The eyes are brown with a red eye-ring, and the legs and webbed feet are bright orange. The distinctive triangular-shaped bill is bulky with horny ridges on the upper mandible that are striped bright orange, blue, and yellow. The face is grey and white and there is a small black patch above and below the eye and a fine black line that extends to the nape. On the head, the forehead, crown, and nape are black with a black collar above the breast. On the underparts the belly and vent is white. In breeding season adult puffins have black upperparts and dusky underwings.
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