Puffins, Pilots and Sea Parrots!

Mon 18th Jun, 2012

Puffins spend most of their lives far out at sea, only coming inshore for four months of the year in order to breed. Occasionally Puffins, like other seabirds, are blown inshore by fierce gales, and in 1935 one notorious Puffin brought traffic to a halt in London as it waddled along the Strand, bringing traffic to a halt! 

Both male and female excavate a burrow in which to nest. On Flamborough Headland they make use of crevices and holes in the unstable boulder clay where cliff slippages have occurred. Puffins usually lay only one egg in a breeding season. 

‘Sea Parrot’ is a name sometimes applied to the Puffin with its massive and colourful bill. The adults look clownish with their big orange-striped ‘noses’ and sad-looking eyes. After breeding however part of the bill is shed and it becomes duller, as do the bright orange legs. 

In flight Puffins can be separated from other auks like Guillemots and Razorbills by their shorter, stubbier body shape, while adults also have a white face. At close range, a small fleshy yellow ‘rosette’ can be seen at the base of the bill. Young Puffins have grey faces, smaller, greyer bills and yellowish legs. 

Puffins on Flamborough Headland in East Yorkshire were once known as ‘Flamborough Pilots’ because in poor weather, when signal guns and lighthouse beams could not be heard or seen, their calls warned merchant sailors of approaching rocks. This fact was used as evidence in support of the Sea Birds Preservation Bill of 1869, which was proposed in order to halt the decline of cliff-nesting birds following unregulated shooting for sport by tourists. Later that year the Act for the Preservation of Sea Birds was passed.

Puffin chicks will be preparing to emerge from their nests about now. If you would like to see Puffins and other sea birds in close up at their nests on the cliffs, come and join us on one of our Puffin Patrols at Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve.