“The Puffin Inspectors” – One-Shot Story

Previously, I described rather special experiences with birds– here, here and here. But this next one was just a bit different. Our 2018 tour of Newfoundland visited a Puffin colony at Elliston. It’s at the tip of of the Bonavista Peninsula, and the national bird’s favored nesting location is on a flat-topped island just off-shore.

It was July, and hundreds of the colorful, charismatic and comical birds were tending nests over there… where tourists could not tread. But not the above pair. According to our guide, they were probably new parents who started building their nest a bit late, and right where anybody could walk right up to it.

So I did! While everyone else crowded over at the main nesting site’s overlook, I had the above scene all to myself… while standing just two feet away.

The Inspectors Arrive

Actually, only the two nesting birds (the ones touching beaks at the bottom right) were there at the time. The left-most is the female, whose soft, rubbery feet were power-excavating their nest hole in the ground. And the male to her upper-right was feeding her. He also guards her, sometimes sleeps, and occasionally, “clacks beaks” with her as a sign of their pairing.

But puffins are intensely curious birds, and within seconds of my arrival, two more ran and flew over to lean into “the action.” Then the sassy fellow on the left ran in from behind me, cut between my legs, and scampered over my shoe. Didn’t even ask permission!

And before he too turned his attention to the unfolding drama, he stared at me. As if to ask, “So…What YOU gonna do about it, bub?” As once favored food items in Newfoundland (and Iceland), you’d think Puffins would have a little more respect (or fear)!

I Wouldn’t Lie to You

If I claimed to capture that decisive moment in a single skillfull shot, I’d be lying. Those little guys are so animated that I just fired off 229 shots with my Panasonic DMC-ZS100 point-and-shoot. And found the featured image while reviewing them one-by-one back home. It was an easy choice.

–Dave Powell is a Westford, Mass., writer and avid amateur photographer.

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