The day I joined Vestmannaeyjar´s Puffling Patrol
Vestmannaeyjar is one of my favourite places for many reasons. One is that it´s home to the world´s largest puffin colony and I have spent many happy hours with my camera, photographing the funny little birds. But one thing I have never - until now - had the chance to do is to get involved in the annual rescue and release of the young puffin chicks - also known as pufflings.
In late August and early September, the chicks, begin to think about leaving the nest. At this point, the parent puffins, who up until now have nurtured and cared for their offspring, begin to practise tough love, stop feeding them and leave, to encourage them to make their own way in the world. Late at night, when they start to get hungry and their parents have disappeared, they make the decision to leave their burrow. Using the moonlight for guidance, they fly off and head towards the ocean. Some pufflings, however, get disorientated by the lights in Vestmannaeyjar and fly towards town. However, there are many dangers that threaten a puffling on the streets of the town, including dogs, cats and cars. The biggest threat they face is not being able to find their way back to the ocean and dying of starvation. This is where the Puffling Patrol comes in.
As night falls, many locals head out once it´s dark to rescue any misguided pufflings. This is a job that is shared by the local children who take their puffling rescue responsibilities very seriously. Any pufflings found on the street or in the harbour are taken back to their rescuer´s house, kept secure in a cardboard box. The next day, they can be released back out to sea from the cliff tops. Any birds that are too young to be released, or are injured, are taken to the puffin hospital at the Sea Life Centre to be looked after until they can be released.
When I heard about this, I wanted to see if I could experience the puffling season for myself. For various reasons, luck was never with me over the past couple of years, but this time fortune smiled on us. We had come over to Heimaey for a quick overnight stop to enjoy one last meal at the wonderful Slippurinn restaurant before its final season came to a close and, given that it is the first week in September, I knew there could be pufflings about. I had prepared ahead and brought a cardboard box large enough to be a temporary puffin home - just in case!
Carrying my precious cargo to the release site
Sadly, as we left the restaurant after a glorious meal, we discovered it was really quite cold and raining hard and so hurried back to the hotel as quickly as possible, keeping an eye out for lost birds but convinced that in this weather they’d probably be staying dry in their burrows. And I thought that would be that.
However, after waking at 4am and being unable to go back to sleep, I checked the weather outside and discovered the rain had stopped so decided to head out for a walk and see if there was anything to be seen. As I got to the harbour I saw a police car cruising slowly along the road and assumed they were looking out for trouble but no - I think they must have been looking out for pufflings! After a couple of moments a flapping was picked up by the dipped headlights and they pulled up and got out. Then started a merry dance as the two young police officers tried to catch the puffling who was equally determined not to be caught as it jumped and flapped with surprising speed. Seeing it heading towards me, I joined in and between us we caught the little bird. Once they knew I had come out to see if I could find a puffling and that I had brought a cardboard box with me they asked if I would like to take it? Absolutely! The puffling, totally unaware that I was here to help, spent much of its time trying to bite me before being deposited into its new cardboard home for the night. I’d put a little grass in the bottom to make it marginally more comfortable but I don’t think the puffin was all that impressed.
My puffling in his temporary home
Once Matthew woke up, surprised to find there were now three of us in residence, we decided to take the little fellow up to the cliffs before breakfast and give him his freedom as soon as possible. It was now a glorious sunny morning so we took the box and its inhabitant up to the cliffs, well away from the harbour and the roads and found a section of cliff where we could see other puffins nesting so we figured it was a good potential residential area (I’ve been told that wherever you release the puffling is where it will return to the following year, so we wanted it to be a nice neighbourhood).
Finally out of his cardboard box and ready for release!
Matthew took pictures and a video of the release as I took our baby puffling out of his cardboard box and prepared to release him. Altering my hold so that his wings were free to flap I waited for him to respond but he seemed a little reticent so I gently moved him up and down and he realised what he was supposed to do, began to flap and took off out to sea.
A last look before he flies off to freedom
What a privilege to get that close to a wild creature and be able to help it on its way to adulthood. Who knows, next year, one of the many many puffins we see from the cliffs as we walk along the coast could be ‘our’ little puffling.