Puffin Season Is Upon Us!

So my favorite animals are puffins. They're totally precious, bumbling little seabirds that migrate between the Icelandic, Scottish, and British coast, and the North American Atlantic coats. The summer months are when a large population of these birds come to nest on the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia.
These adorable house-cat sized birds are endangered. Since the 70's and 80's conservation has taken off to try and protect them.
I'm not sure why I suddenly discovered them, but I know I've been obsessed with them since the 2nd grade. I have a small collection of stuffed puffin toys, books, prints, etc. Now that I'm older, puffin conservation is one of my pet causes. Part of my summer traditions is to watch the puffin live cam from the shoreline of Seal Island in Maine, which you can't actually visit as a tourist, because Seal Island was owned by the government as kind of target practice, though it's been retired - pretty wild, right? But that makes it absolutely perfect for animal conservation.

This year there has been a dent in the puffin population owning to some mysterious deaths on the coast of Scotland. Scientists aren't really clear what's happened, but all of the deaths had one thing in common. It appears most of them were starved. Maybe it's because of the dramatic weather changes affecting their food supply (which is the rooted main cause for their endangerment), but I'm no expert in the matter. Now they've returned to the coast of North America, and our biologists are counting their numbers.
I'll keep you all updated when I learn anything new about Puffins ;) In the mean time, here are some puffin facts:

• Puffins are considered a delicacy in Iceland, since at one time there was an over-abundance of puffins and they were actually kind of a pest.
• They live most of their lives at sea, but rather than flying over the water they float on the waves.
• Puffins tend to keep one mate for life.
• They can "fly" underwater.