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Hungry Puffin

Puffin

Horned Puffin, Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.

I understand that puffin have the unique ability to catch and hold fish in their beaks, allowing them to continue to fish and capture more.  Every puffin I saw with fish seemed to have at least 5!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Alaska, Author, Lake Clark, Photos, Ron, Travel, Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Hungry Puffin”

  1. Thangamani Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 2:43 am

    Fantastic!!

    I always see these long (thin) fishes in the Puffin’s beak!

  2. Beth Lunsford Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 7:58 am

    That is a perfect pic! What a beautiful & strange looking creature. Are you & Carl still looking for the mostly noctunal wolverine? The best place to see one is in northwest Montana, near the Bob Marshall wilderness area. Anyway, joke or not, that’s the place the stronghold of them. Hope everyone is doing well!!

  3. Dave Taylor Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    Another gorgeous image. How close were you able to get to these guys?

  4. Richard Wong Says:
    August 6th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

    Such an unusual bird. I’ve always wondered what is the deal with their eyes. It’s unlike that of any other animal I’ve seen.

  5. Mark Meyer Says:
    August 7th, 2008 at 11:47 am

    Nice shote Ron–what a gorgeous bird. I’ve spent a lot of time in Lake Clark and have staffed the NPS cabin at Silver Salmon Creek and Chinitna Bay but have never seen a puffin. Did you go out on boat for the shots? Where you staying at Dave Coray’s place out there?

  6. Ron Says:
    August 7th, 2008 at 10:37 pm

    Thanks Thangamani!

    Beth, I’m always watching for wolverine! Thanks for the tip, I will have to read more about that area.

    Hi Dave, I was able to get pretty close to these guys - it did take a few hours for them to get used to us. According to my camera, this was 12.3 meters with a 600 and 2x converter.

    Great to hear from you Mark,

    Ironically, the ranger at the Silver Salmon ranger cabin while I was there turned out to be Sean Brennan, a good friend of mine who used to be here at Kenai Fjords.

    I did stay with Dave. Dave and Joann were wonderful people - I hope to write more about my stay when I have the time. We did go out on a boat for these images - in fact Dave’s son Oliver dropped us off for a number of hours - I don’t think they do that with the typical visitor. I need to look at a map, this may be part of the Maritime Preserve, and not actually in Lake Clark N.P.

    Thanks,

    Ron

  7. Dave Taylor Says:
    August 8th, 2008 at 11:29 pm

    Hey Ron - You’re probably aware of this, but I thought I’d post it anyway. Tonight is forecasted for good aurora, and it’s supposedly clear down there by you. Just a thought:)

  8. Ron Says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    Hi Dave,

    Thanks for the heads up! I have already been getting some k emails, so they are probably already good if it was dark. There are some clouds here right now, hopefully they will clear. At least now it is getting dark enough to actually see them.

    Ron

  9. Mark Says:
    August 9th, 2008 at 7:31 pm

    Great puffin shots Ron. These birds are hilarious to watch, especially when flying/landing. Not the most graceful creatures. :-)

  10. Ron Says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

    Thanks Mark

    I agree, they are so awkward on land, and yet so graceful underwater, they are funny birds to watch.

    Ron

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