PREPARING TO TAKE OFF!
As we are already in August, the puffling time is going fast!
The adult puffins have the duty to feed the young ones during this period. The pufflings, or chicks, don’t leave burrows before knowing how to fly and both male and female puffin take turns bringing fish to them.
It is very rare to see the chicks because they stay inside the burrows until they are ready to fly.
The adults feed the chick for approximately 45 days and the puffling grows to full size in around six weeks. The adult’s puffins feed their chick two to ten times per day, depending on the age of the puffling with peak of feedings at dawn and another at dusk. When the puffling is around 4-5 weeks, the number of feedings decrease.
The parents feed young pufflings directly from their beaks and drop the remaining fish on the floor for them to eat in its own time. When the Puffling grows older, its parents will deposit the food at the burrow’s entrance for the little one to collect.
During our tours, we see every day adult puffins carrying fish and fly back to the breeding colony to feed the pufflings. But we are reaching the time that chicks are getting ready to fly away from the burrow, without their parents to spend its next three to four years floating on the open seas
The adult puffins and chicks spend the winter (and most of their life– out at sea) just resting on waves. The puffins start fly away at the end of August most precisely.
During the winter, they will be spread out widely across the North Atlantic Ocean, only returning to Skjálfandi Bay on the next summer.
If you haven’t yet the chance to see the Atlantic puffins up to close, you may hurry it up!
If you join in our "GG2 Big Whale Safari & Puffins" “ you will have the opportunity to see closely how these adult puffins are really busy!
Diana
