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Atlantic Puffins
The Atlantic Puffins generally make their appearance in Scotland in late March into April to breed and raise their chicks known as pufflings. Puffins are pelagic birds and head back out to the open ocean around August after the chick has left the burrow. When they are not flying, they will rest, bobbing in the ocean on the waves.
Puffins aren’t very large birds, only about 10 inches tall, and weigh about as much as a can of soda. They are, however, very striking birds with a black back, white breast, and a black crown on their head with pale grey cheek patches, they have red and black beaks and bright orange legs and feet. These bright colors only last during the breeding season and before winter the bright beak is shed and a much duller color takes its place.
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Puffins nest under large boulders or in cracks on cliffsides. Puffins generally keep the same mate for life and nest in the same colony year after year. The female will only lay a single egg each year
Both puffin parents work together taking care of the egg and the puffling. The Pufflings have a voracious appetite and keep mom and dad very busy fishing for its' next meal. Puffins can be quite boisterous while nesting in their puffenries, yet are silent while at sea. These are fast birds and can fly at 55 MPH, flapping their wings up to 400 times a minute, and are graceful swimmers that appear to be flying whilst underwater as they hunt for fish such as herring, hake, and sand eels. They can dive up to 200 feet deep and stay underwater for up to a minute. They are often photographed with a beak full of multiple eels and fish, often holding 10-12 at a time to feed their hungry chick.
Some Scots affectionately refer to Puffins as clowns of the sea.” They can be seen pretty much along the coastlines from Shetland https:// www.shetlandwebcams.com/ puffincam/ down to the Firth of Forth and North Berwick, to the Trenish Isles, and beyond. The Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick offers boat trips to visit these "clowns of the sea". https://www.seabird.org.
