Poirot Puffins

Have you ever watched Agatha Christie's Poirot on TV? These little fellows are so much like him in their dress, movement and attitude. We spent two hours sitting and watching.

Our puffin tour involved a 90 minute drive, 50 minute ferry ride to the island of Mull, 30 minute mini bus ride, about an hour in a smallish boat with  around 50 other people and a stop at Staffa Island on the way to see Fingal's Cave. First we walked along the tops of basalt columns at the base of a cliff.

At the cave we walked along a ledge with a hand rail but no railing on the water side to stop you falling into the surging water below. You could go all the way in but I didn't as there were too many people lining the wall all the way.

 We had our first puffin sighting on the cliff top above the cave, but the real show was another 30 minute boat ride away on Lunga Island.

 And what a show! The boat captain told us the puffins had all been to modelling school and would pose for photos. He was right. They were very tolerant of our presence.

Puffins are sometimes  called the clowns of the sea. A group is called a circus and they live in a puffinery, bringing tbeir pufflings up in cliff top burrows. They live for around 30 years.

They fly very very fast, like little World War II bomber jets, but they are awkward landers.

Can you see the one at the top of this photo coming in to land?

There were other birds there such as these razor bills, but they could not compete with the puffins for our attention.

Such cute handsome entertaining  birds, quite unafraid of humans and happy to allow us to watch their daily routines from just a couple of metres away. Although occassionally one would emerge from a burrow and give you a look as if to say, "Oh dear! Humans, again!"

A very unique experience and a day I will remember for a long time.