IT'S PUFFLINGS TIME
As the nesting season of the puffins proceeds, a busy time has started for the parents. The chicks, or so-called pufflings, should have hatched by now, which means the adults have to continously venture out in search for food.
Puffins feed on small fish such as herring, hake, sand eel or capelin, which they bring as a whole to their offsprings to feed on.
Whilst they might fly up to 10 miles away to find enough prey, puffins are able to collect the fish in their beak, which means they don't have to fly back and forth for every single fish they caught. Instead, they stack the prey crosswise inside the beak and use their strong tongue to push the fish against the upper jaw. The jaw in turn is textured with "spines" and ensures that the food doesn't fall back out as the bird opens the beak to add another fish.
In average, a puffin brings about 10 fish at once back to its burrow, but the record stands at 62 fish by a puffin in Britain.
If you were hoping for that iconic shot of a puffin with a beak full of fish - now is your chance!
Join our "GG2 Big Whale Safari & Puffins" and get to observe one of the largest puffin colonies around the country!
- Sarah
