wooohoooo!
These funny guys were another absolute highlight on my trip to Iceland!
A young male puffin has to dig a cave with two rooms, which lasts a few years. When the cave is finished he is able to date a female and found a family. One room is for the single egg, while the other room is the toilet.
We were told, puffins stay on sea the whole day and only come back at night to guard the cave entrance. Fortunately arctic mid-summer nights are quite bright – but still a big challenge for the camera. To give you an idea: the above photo is taken at 21:41h with1/125s, f/5.6 with a 400mm FX lens at ISO1600.
When we arrived at about 21:00, only very few birds were already on the cliff. But, when we left at about 0:30h the cliffs were full of them. Unfortunately, now it was way too dark to take a usable photo. Even, when pitching the ISO to the maximum, the aperture times were too long to freeze the constantly moving birds in a single frame. Thus, I only have the overview photo (155mm, f/5.1 1/40s, ISO 1600 taken at 0:02h) I included in the slideshow below
Just like the arctic terns, they eat fish: lesser sand eel
But, sand eel are disappearing at the south coasts of Iceland. So, I’m very glad to were able to see them.
Take care!
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