Long-suffering-Dilly has returned from Malawi, to find fortress Balham still standing, me still surviving, and fresh milk in the fridge. She has brought with her a tan, a selection of stones (this is normal for her - like a Bowerbird, she leaves shiny pebbles dotted about the house) and, most importantly, duty free cigarettes.
To celebrate her return and the consequent upturn in my quality of diet, (because, although I would never admit it to her, you actually can have too much take-away curry) here are some of the puffins that she so eloquently described on her blog not long ago.
Puffins are jaunty little birds, slightly awkward in manner. They look like rotund clockwork toys when they fly, and, like albatrosses, have never really mastered the art of taking off and landing. To launch, they just hurl themselves off the nearest cliff and flap enthusiastically, and to land... well, it's really just a case of nose dive and hope for the best.
Their magnificent beak colouration only happens during the breeding season. The beak is made of horny plates, and for most of the year is dull. But the puffins are out at sea then, anyway. They only come back to breed and entertain tourists.
There are three different puffin species. The ones pictured are Atlantic puffins. Then there are Horned puffins (the horn is a fetching mark above the eye that makes them look as if they are wearing false eyelashes) and Tufted puffins (mostly black, with a serious set of golden eyebrows not unlike the macaroni penguin).
If you'd like to know more about the great puffin adventure that Long-suffering-Dilly and I undertook in Wales on the Isle of Skomer, see Dilly's word-for-word blog under 'My favourite bird is a puffin'. There's a link at the top of the page.
No comments:
Post a Comment