Quelle Surprise! II

The first part can be found HERE


Instead of retreating, to my surprise the puffin hopped towards me, paused and after some deliberation offered me her best side. With the island uninhabited clearly the birds had little fear of humans. Alternatively it could have been she’d never seen two Yorkshirewomen before…….


Then perhaps deciding that Yorkshirewomen were no different to anyone else she hopped back down her burrow.


She clearly had gone inside to report, as moments later her husband appeared and being a guy he then proceeded to strut his stuff.


Then with his comical matelot roll he casually strolled towards us and eyeballed us.


He then provided us with a side profile. I couldn’t believe our luck.


Moments later we were reminded that at this time of year the single egg clutch would have hatched and puffins would be preoccupied with feeding their growing chick, as a bird landed on the cliff top, it’s beak loaded with sand eels.

Puffins can dive to depths of up to 70 m (200 ft) and are propelled through the water by their powerful wings, their webbed feet used as a rudder. When catching small fish, such as herring, sprats and sand eels, the tongue is used to hold the fish against spines in the palate, leaving the bill free to open to catch more fish. The catch, which may number up to twelve fish, is held in the bill with the heads facing in alternate directions.

By now I was snapping away furiously and finding that photographing puffins was not as easy as it looked. They have a habit of moving their heads erratically, producing blur even at high shutter speeds. Furthermore, they have an inner eyelid which frequently drops to mask the eye making an ungainly looking portrait.
In fact I was to find that puffin portraits was every bit as difficult as children, which in many ways they resembled. The trick of course with any portrait is to capture the essence or the character of your subject.


Moments later I got the shot I wanted for my office wall. A puffin posed with the sea in the background and underfoot the cliff-top flowers and lawn of chamomile. The slightly perplexed look I’d captured seemed to typify them so well……With that shot in the can I felt I could relax.


My next goal was to try and capture something of their life and a male showing off watched by his adoring wife seemed to help fit the bill (if you excuse the pun).

By now puffins were arriving more regularly with food. On landing abruptly they scampered as quickly as they could for their burrows. This particular one had clearly not been reading the text books which insist puffins hold their prey in their beak alternatively nose to tail.

Guarding the burrows and the growing chick the mums waited patiently for dad to arrive.


It soon became clear why the puffins made so quickly for their burrows on landing and why mums had to stay on guard. Waiting in ambush were bandits. These particular bandits were no ordinary bandits they were great black backed gulls measuring up to 31” long with a 5/6 foot wingspan, bigger than many dogs and capable of swallowing puffins whole. In this case they were after the puffin’s catch. No ordinary bandits indeed, their mission was to rag, shag, and debag any careless puffin.


Far below in the ocean the puffins could be seen fishing. You can see the puffin in the top left corner of the photo has started to amass sand eels. When they are ready they take off and spirally gradually upwards until they are above the cliff top. Often they will circle overhead two or three times at speed, to reconnoitre for gulls.


Frequently they are attacked in mid air by cruising gulls.


The more successful puffins land like jump jets directly over their burrow and enter in one smooth motion.


Landing and running no matter how fast is always a riskier option.


This puffin made it to his burrow…………


But not quickly enough as he was grabbed by the arse…..


.. and unceremoniously hauled out…..


..and dumped back on the cliff top………….


…before being robbed of his catch……..


This one was lucky to escape with his life, although an hour’s fishing clearly went down the pan…. Taking sequences like this rely on being ready for the unexpected and a big dollop of luck. With the camera set on continuous shutter all you can do is hope something is in focus and press the button as it is all over in less than five seconds.


In this unfortunately blurry photo you can just see the single chick emerging from the burrow briefly. A dangerous thing to do with so many gulls about.


Here dad is getting an appreciative nibble from his wife for being such a good fisherman…...


He in turn responded like all men do when made a fuss of, he went out and told the neighbours.


Unfortunately my time with these beautiful birds was short as there was the rest of the island to see. As surprises go this one was up there with the best. Seeing and photographing these comical birds had been a lifetime ambition from the age of four when I was given a puffin cuddly toy. Sometimes it is the simplest things in life that give the most pleasure and having those close to you willing to arrange such surprises is of course priceless.

On the brief journey back in the boat through the tide race, we watched porpoises driving mackerel up to the surface, surrounded by gannets diving in from a great height and throwing up huge plumes of water….. unfortunately by then with all the salt spray my father’s camera was carefully wrapped in a bin bag for protection.

All in all my idea of a perfect day….