puffin post

A combination of road, ferry, bridge, tunnel and walking to the little island of Runde.

This is known as bird island because the sheer rock cliffs are homes to many species including, notably, the puffin. The basics are that herring swim south to spawn creating huge tonnages of eggs on the sea floor. They reckon the weight of the spawn is larger than the weight of the entire Norwegian population. The number of herring means that with sensible fishing, the Norwegians could eat herring every day of the year (I know).

The miniature herring start back north right past Runde where the puffins with their young are on the lookout for food. Herring have a tough life, hunted for by many seabirds, killer whales, the puffins and man with huge trawler nets.

It gives the puffins a hard time too, because the annual quantities of herring passing by need to arrive at the right time for the puffins with their young. Too late and the young puffins don't get fed. Despite the challenges, the ams puffins will return in the same pairs to their prior year nests on the island.

We ventured high onto the cliffs, but the areas where the puffins were most visible was out of bounds because of the season, so I'll make do with the footage below:

We did see many other birds including the angular gannets diving into the water to spear their prey, but I guess the puffin wins the P.R. vote.