Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Ben: The Quest For Wild Puffins

While on the Northern Ireland excursion, we took a day to visit Rathlin Island, a small island in Northern Ireland inhabited by only 90 people. On the way, we were told that puffins inhabited this island. I have never seen puffins in the wild, and was very excited to catch a glimpse of them. After we had taken a walking tour of some of the island and eaten lunch, we were informed that seeing puffins was not part of our trip’s plans and required a separate bus ride. However, for the last hour or two, we were free to wander. After concluding amongst a few of the other trip-goers that the tour was rather dry and not very exciting, we were determined to spice up our trip and make it our mission to see these puffins. We boarded the Puffin Bus, as seen below.




When we reached our destination, we were let off the shuttle and walked what I would estimate to be about a mile, maybe a bit more, through what was supposed to be a nature reserve. We did not see any puffins, and were afraid that perhaps they simply were not around today. We did not actually see any wildlife and were becoming very anxious climbing hills leading to no puffins.




We finally reached our destination, which turned out to be merely a bird watching tower. There was a small gift shop, binoculars and small scopes for viewing the rocks and cliffs where hundreds, probably thousands of birds sat, perched, walked and flew around. We were, however, no closer than at least fifty feet from the closest bird, by not only horizontal length but height as well.






We all were glad to see these birds (of many kinds, not exclusively puffins) in their natural habitat, and I cannot speak for everyone, but I kind of put on a happy face just for having seen them. Inside, I have to admit that I expected to be a bit closer—I probably could have been closer to one at the Philadelphia Zoo if I really wanted to—but I guess it is the adventure and anticipation that adds to the journey ultimately. I did manage to snap a few pictures and a video of the puffins “in the wild” through one of the scopes, because few people had a camera with powerful enough zoom to capture the birds from so far away. With a small donation, I took home a puffin pin as a keepsake to remind me of this adventurous, albeit rather anticlimactic journey in search of wild puffins.



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