How Cute are Puffins?

While in Iceland I was adamant about seeing these adorable creatures called Puffins.  They are birds indegenous to several islands in Iceland and also other parts of the world.  There are several different species of Puffins, but the ones most commonly found in Iceland are called Atlantic Puffins.  

Puffins are interesting birds because they can fly and swim yet they are not related to Penguins as some might think.  Puffins have an interesting social hierarchy and are monogamous creatures.  They will stay with their mates until they die. If their mate dies before them, they may wait up to a year before seeking out a new make.  How sweet.  Puffins will also get into fights over territory and women and some of these fights happen at the edge of cliffs where they will try to knock each other off.  It's a good thing they can fly.  Apparently these fights can get pretty intense, but I just think it sounds adorable.  You can also eat Puffin in Iceland but I had to pass on that.

If you want to see Puffins in Iceland the easiest way to do that is to book a tour. You can either book online or go to a kiosk at the Harbour.  The tour we did was called the Puffin Express and it is a quick tour only lasting an hour and you take a short boat ride to a nearby island.  The tours leave twice a day and it only costs 33 Euro.  

Our tour guide was super informative and gave us all sorts of info about Puffins.  The boat gets as close as it can to the island where you can take pictures.  Unfortunately, as you can see from my images, even with a zoom lens, it doesn't get as close as I'd like, but you can still get a pretty good glimpse of these lovely birds. The last image is a close up of a Puffin that I found on Wikipedia just to give you a better idea of what they look like.  How cute are they???

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Would you want to see Puffins in Iceland?
Stay tuned for my next post about Reykjavik!  Also, check out my other post about Iceland: A Scenic Morning in Gardur, Iceland
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