Puffins
In addition to being the site of one of the most remarkable monasteries anywhere, the Skelligs are also a bird sanctuary. On Skellig Michael, thousands and thousands of puffins build their nests each summer. Puffins, it turns out, are long lived birds; they aren’t mature until the age of five, which is when their beaks take on the characteristic colours. They mate for life, but spend much of each year separated from their mates, charging around the seas solo. They reunite annually to nest and raise their young. They can sleep on the water. And when they fly, they look like they’re falling (falling with style, as Buzz Lightyear would have it).
Puffins
They are also ridiculously cute. They look a bit like small people dressed up in puffin suits.
Little Skellig is home to some 60,000 gannets, large gull-like birds with lemon-coloured heads. I don’t know much about their domestic arrangements, but here is a little video of where they live. Gannett
July 24th, 2012 at 5:12 am
Great post. Loved the previous post with the misty isles and description of the monks and inhabitants on Skellig. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a puffin up close – would love to do so. Very much hoping to visit Skellig at some point in the near future.
July 25th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
I have quite a vivid memory of being downwind of the gannett colony on Little Skellig. Yikes.
What a place, though.