This next blogpost is an encounter with these enigmatic seabirds, where I was able to visit one of their huge nesting colonies for a day on Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire, Wales a few years back. Finding them isn’t difficult at all and they’re present almost all around the island, even at the small harbour as soon as the boat lands. Another thing that sets them apart from other wildlife subjects is that they are incredibly obliging and have no fear of people (as do a lot of seabird species). This is probably due to them spending almost their entire lives at sea and haven’t really had any trouble from hunting etc.

On this trip I wanted to try out a variety of settings. The weather was mostly overcast and a little rainy, but that didn’t stop it from being a fantastic experience. What worked well, was photographing them among the green grass and cliff top flowers .

As it was around the end of May, the majority of the Puffins were still incubating eggs or at least very small chicks, which meant they weren’t bringing in fish yet. However some were still collecting nesting material. Bits of grass and flowers, so we could watch them return back and forth from the nest hole, which are old Rabbit dens.

Due to the proximity of the Puffins and how close they were nesting to the path as well a slight upward slope, it was harder getting a sea backdrop with a darker cliff/rock tones, or at least I didn’t find a spot where they were close, while still at the edge of the cliff. So, I made use of the nice, clean, green backgrounds of the cliff top.

Watching these birds up close is fantastic and even if they’re a little too close at times it made for a good close up of those unique clown like faces. Here are two below that I thought were simple, but worked well.

Puffins are an incredible bird, which anyone could enjoy and be facsinated by them and their interesting behaviour. Hopefully one day soon I’ll get to return to them…