The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

The Santa Puffins Fly Tonight

"Reindeer?   We don't need no stinkin' reindeer!  Though if Dasher came by he could help us with our jibes..."

(Puffin Santas by Paula Lucia at Heron Cove Art.  Jibe assistance from Dasher at Sideoff Video.  Merry Christmas from The Peconic Puffin!)

Pooping Puffin Politics

The Peconic Puffin has been receiving a steady stream of email urging us to address the Canadian Pooping Puffin political commercial "scandal" which targets Stephane Dion, a liberal.   I have resisted, because in Puffin algebra, the pooping puffin commercial is to puffins as the anti-John Kerry windsurfing commercial is to windsurfing.   

I will note the fecal theme that seems to delight certain conservatives.  Back in 2004 the director of President Bush's campaign was dubbed by his friend and boss "Turd Blossom".   In the Bush administration a trusted adviser is equated with a flower that grew out of a pile of shit.  

And we wonder why the country is in trouble.

Here's the video:
For good news about puffins, check out these posts.  And as OG Peconic Puffin Avery would say:  "Don't be a poopy face!"

There Once Was A Puffin

(Thank you Mike Burns for finding this thing! It's been awhile since I've done a post on puffins. )

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays to all...may your hearts and sails be full!

(Image from a Christmas card which says "original design by Roz Davis". Roz...we love the design!)

Puffins Get A Break in the Firth of Forth

Puffins don't ask for much. They can deal with the jokes, the photographers, even the black-backed gulls that eat them every now and again. All they require are sand eels, a nice burrow, and ten thousand friends to hang out with, and they're set.

But recently in Scotland, in the Firth of Forth on the island of Craigleith, the puffin population had been on the decline because of some evil trees, whose roots were choking off puffin burrows left and right. Despite their chain saw vocalizations, puffins aren't really set up to do battle with trees.

Enter the Scottish Seabird Centre. Puffins are loved in Scotland, and the Centre got right to it, clearing out the offending mallow trees and getting our buddies reinstalled in their little homes.

Rock on, Scottish Seabird Centre!

(Photo: A puffin family contemplates the simple pleasures of home, sweet home.)

Bowling for Puffins

The Hinterland Who's Who section on birds doesn't quite seem to get it about puffins:

"Puffins are poor fliers. They have difficulty becoming airborne and flap their wings at an amazing 300 to 400 beats per minute to maintain flight. They also have trouble landing and often crash onto the sea or tumble onto the grass, bowling over other puffins that get in their way.

Let's be clear: Puffins rock those beats to hit air speeds in excess of 50 mph, and they turn on a dime. As for landing, they splash into the sea or tumble onto the grass because they can! Wouldn't you?

"On land puffins stand upright and walk or hop about with apparent great care over the uneven terrain of the colony."

See? They can be refined and deft in movement when they want to. But they'd rather send their buddies rolling down the hill.

(Trying to avoid the pesky 7-10 split, a puffin lines up carefully, hoping to make contact between the 1 and 3 puffins.)

Grab Bag

Three bits on other people's blogs that I've admired but not found a way to break out into something larger are now presented, 'cause I just feel like sharing:

1. A nice little tale of swimming with Tiger Sharks from Pono House, which is the Maui-est of the Maui blogs in my estimation because it doesn't try. Bill is just "there" (not that I don't enjoy Giampaolo!)

2. A little boat named Puffin is reason enough to shout out Tugster, a wonderful blog about the boats that ply New York harbor. Everything from container ships to schooners, from achingly beautiful handcrafted sailboats to the latest poop haulers all somehow fit together here. Want to spend a minute meditating on how beautiful a coil of rope can be? This is the place.

3. Nothing little about this wall of water about to ruin someone's waterstart from The Horse's Mouth. If it's wind powered and you can ride it on the water, The Horse's Mouth likes it (also fish and pretty girls.)

Are You Puffin Enough?

Imagine looking this ugly bastard in the eye before popping him into your mouth. Do you eat him straight off? No! You fly him back to your nest, put on your best Pacino, and squawk "Say hello to my little friends!"

Doom is down the gullet of a puffin chick for the three-bearded rockling.

Photo by Erling Svensen from The Aquarium Project

Accents on Puffins

Puffins have accents, reports Bruce McMillan on his puffin page. Or at least they sound distinctly different in one place than another. ("Why shouldn't a puffin sound different?" a puffin asked the Puffin.) Hey, it's all good with us...we just like puffins and want to know more.

Here is a puffin in Iceland. Note the simularities to Bjork. Imagine the influence of reindeer.

While here is a sensible Maine puffin. McMillan comments on a bit of chainsaw in the tone.

Who knows what effect the proximity to New York City has had on the puffins that brighten our windsurfing sessions on Long Island?

You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here.

Ask A Puffin

-from Ophrys Photography, who have more good things where this came from.

Puffin Greatness

The record number of fish carried in a single puffin’s beak is 62. The haul consisted of 61 sand eels and one three-bearded rockling.

(So says The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.)