The Atlantic Puffin
The
Atlantic Puffin is the most popular and maybe
the best-known member of the auk family, especially
to European, birders and non-birders alike. It is
remarkable for its coloured, parrot-like beak, which
gives it such a comical and appealing appearance.
However someone once said it's not the black and
white plumage, or the upright carriage or the orange
red legs that gives the Puffin its quaintlook, but
its eyes! This is set deeply above the round, full
cheek, from which a conspicuous groove curves
backwards. Around the eye there is a crimson ring
and above it a small, triangular, blue, horny plate
and below it a small, similarly coloured bar. All
these features are discernible only at relatively
close quarters, but the Atlantic Puffin is usually
obliging enough to allow close scrutiny when on it
breeding grounds. Once can then see clearly that it
is indeed the expression created by the eye that
makes the "Sea Parrot", as it was once widely
called, so endearing.
It is a well-worn cliche, but one cannot help
repeating the phrase that the Atlantic Puffin is
indeed the 'clown' of the bird world with brightly
coloured, conical bill and quizzical expression.
The Atlantic Puffin is found on both sides of
the North Atlantic, with the nominate race breeding
in Southern Greenland, Iceland, and from Labrador
south to Maine, and northern Norway.
The subspecies F.a. grabae breeds in southern
Norway, Sweden, the British Isles and Islands off
north west France, while F.a. naumanni occurs in
northern Greenland, Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya and
Jan Mayen Land. The difference between the
subspecies is solely a matter of size with F.a.
naumanni, by the very slightest amount, the larger.
It is only during the breeding season that the
Atlantic Puffin
sports its colourful red, yellow, and blue beak.
Once nesting is over, it is lost, along with the
yellow ritual tubercle and other horny appendage
around the eye. During the winter months the face of
the adult looks a dirty grey, while the juvenile's
is even darker, but with a smaller beak. In both,
the legs are a dirty yellow at that time of year.
From September through to February Atlantic Puffins
are truly pelagic and are spread widely across the
north Atlantic and into the Mediterranean.
Storm-driven birds blown inland turn up on lakes and
reservoirs miles from the sea. However, they seem
less prone to such 'wrecking' than some other
seabirds such as Dovekie or Manx Shearwater.
Back to the top
On the sea they swim easily, riding the waves in
the roughest weather, whilst on the wing their rapid
whirring flight carries them low over the water. It
is in flight that identification can be a problem,
with the difference between it, the Razorbill and
the Common Murre hard to determine.
In the breeding season Atlantic Puffins
especially favour turfy island and grassy cliff
tops, where they nest in underground burrows which
they mostly excavate themselves. At times they will
take over those previously dug out by rabbits. Birds
often start to arrive back at their nesting areas at
the end of February or early March, certainly at
lower latitudes. They collect together in restless
'rafts' just offshore, only occasionally coming,
briefly, to land. During these early days they will
disappear enmasse to return a few days later.
Most birds would seem to be paired on arrival,
but as the season advances and more time is spent on
land, further courtship ensues, with much billing
and cooing and neck and head nibbling. Further
establishment of the pair bond is determined by the
ritual presentation of feathers or pieces of grass
by the male to the female. When these ceremonies
take place, other nearby birds may attempt to join
in. Quite often squabbles break out and birds become
locked in battle using feet, wings and bill to drive
away would-be interlopers to these private affairs.
However, during courtship Atlantic Puffins are quite
promiscuous birds.
Both male and female share in the excavation of
the burrow, the strong legs and feet, with their 1/4
inch (6 mm) claws, well able to scratch away the
earth. It is at this time that Atlantic Puffins are
most vocal, when their low growling 'arr' takes on a
whole range of different 'meaning and emotions'
according to the way its uttered. In soft soil, the
burrow may be 3 to 4 feet (1 m) long, with perhaps
more than one entrance and exit. In harder terrain
it may be no more than a cavity under a pile of
rocks. At some sites where constant burrowing has
taken place over the years, whole areas have
collapsed, rendering then untenable. The extinction
of the colony on Grassholm, Wale, is a classic
example of such a situation.
Back to the top
The nest itself may be little more than a few
bits of grass and the odd feather, whilst at times
the egg can be deposited on bare soil. The single
egg, laid during the second half of May, is dull
white with a rough texture and is usually faintly
marked with grey or reddish spots. Incubation lasts
for about forty days. The
newborn chick is covered in black down above and
white below. It grows rapidly on a diet of small
fish, especially sand eels, during which time the
adult birds can be seen returning from their fishing
trips with, amazingly, often a dozen or more sand
eels held in their bill. When feeding their young
the adults are particularly vulnerable to predation
by large gulls and skuas. The
Great Black-backed Gull, particularly, preys on
the Atlantic Puffin and can swallow them whole.
The young Atlantic Puffins are feed for about 40
days and then abandoned by their parents.
Eventually, after about a week, they are driven by
hunger to emerge from the nesting burrow and make
their way to the sea. This journey is fraught with
the danger of predation by gulls or skuas, and quite
a number for one reason or another fail to reach the
comparative safety of the ocean. Those British birds
that succeed spend the winter months in the waters
of the Atlantic, in the North Sea or Bay of Biscay.
The Northern American population appears only to
move from its breeding site to adjacent offshore
waters, but occasionally some are to be found south
to Long Island, New York.
In Britain the major concentrations of nesting
Atlantic Puffins are to be found in Orkney, Shetland
and the Western Isles of Scotland. There are
numerous other scattered colonies, particularly
round the western shores of Britain and Ireland,
whilst the Farne Islands especially have a notable
population. In British waters the
Atlantic Puffin was once numbered in the
millions. Indeed, it is believed that at one time St
Kilda alone held over a million pairs. This century
has seen a marked reduction in the overall
population, with pollution of the sea from oil
spillages undoubtedly contributing to this decline.
The present British population is estimated to be in
the region of half a million pairs.
[Puffins]
[Atlantic]
[Tufted]
[Horned]
|
