Last night when I left the office at Sumburgh Head, I took a quick peek over the wall to see what I could see. Right in front of me was this peerie fellow ("peerie" in Shetland dialect means "small"). Excuse the quality of the picture, but I just wanted to show how close it was to the wall.
It's very easy to humanise puffins, perhaps because they walk upright and have a curiosity about them. But I could have sworn that as soon as this individual saw the camera it started to strike a pose - elongating and stretching out, turning this way and that. Hundreds and hundreds of puffins were down the cliffs and flocks swirling around.
On the reserve today are hundreds of seabirds - puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes, and fulmars. It looks and sounds (and is starting to smell like) the spring/summer. Add to that Rob saw our first bonxie of the year this morning.
Cheers for noo
Nice story, keep em coming!