Puffins

Newsletter from April 25 2025

Researching for The Unbearable Melt, book three in the series, I fell in love with puffins.

• They flap their wings up to four hundred times a minute, allowing them to travel at nearly 55mph, or 88kph.

• They are collectively known as a circus. They get their nickname as clowns of the sea because their take-offs and landings are far from graceful, often ending in bellyflops and rolled tumbles.

• Their beaks, or bills, don’t meet in straight lines. They’re angled and serrated, allowing them to hold multiple fish, pressing catch against their palate with their tongues as they scoop more up. One puffin is on record for holding 83 small fish in its bill at once.

• Their coloring changes during the year. In winter, their bills are a dull gray, and their legs a pale yellow. Their facial feathers are dark and rather drab. In spring, their bills and legs bloom to the characteristic orange, along with their fabulous orange eyeshadow. This helps them assess potential mates and recognize each other.

• They flap their wings underwater, and their webbed feet act as a rudder.

• They can dive down to 60 meters, or 196 feet.

• While not technically mated for life, they do seek out their former lovers as partners, time after time, and both parents take turns incubating the egg.

• Despite their stocky stature, they only weight 320g, which is 0.7 of a pound.

• Puffins spend eight months a year on the water, only coming to land to mate and make babies.