Puffinology

Puffinology is apparently an actual thing. Despite most ‘ologies’ being premised by the latin word of the thing being studied, the latin for puffin is actually Fratercula which comes from the latin for ‘little brother’ as they look a bit like monks… apparently.

There is another seabird called a Manx Shearwater and the latin name is Puffinus Puffinus. This comes from the old English word for the cured carcasses of fat Manx Shearwater. gross.

A lot of people mistake penguins for puffins due to their black and white colouring with pops of orange and red on feet and/or bills. They are not related but have evolved to have similar colouring due to the environment they live in. It’s the same for Orca. These animals have dark backs, and light undersides. It’s camo innit. if you look at a penguin, puffin or orca in the ocean from above, you’ll see dark against dark. from underneath you’ll see white undersides mirroring the light of the sky. Mental.

On this particular excursion, Kim and I took the road from Reykjavik to the Snæfellsnes peninsula to the west of Iceland. An area known as little Iceland due to its concentration of all things Iceland in a ring road drivable in half a day. You’ve got glaciers, black sand beaches, wildlife, volcanoes, mossy lava fields and waterfalls. There’s also a tiny fishing village called Stykkishólmur where we were headed to find these puffins.

We booked a boat ride with ocean adventures, a tiny fishing boat that is able to get super close to the cliffs to be able to get the best views of Puffins puffining. The boat is not overcrowded like a lot of the reykjavik tours and within ten minutes we were surrounded by puffins and all manner of other shrieking and shitting birds.