Photo: Yves Alarie | Unsplash
The Icelandic island of Heimaey hosts a million puffins annually for their breeding cycle. On their first flights leaving the burrow, some young birds - known as pufflings - get confused by the lights of town and head inland instead of out to sea. When puffins land on streets, their wings are too weak to get them aloft from the flat ground, leaving them vulnerable to cars, predators and starvation. Generations of citizens have made it their mission to find any pufflings that get lost on the island and help them get airborne. For members of the Puffling Patrol, this can mean late nights and being out in bad weather in service of helping these iconic birds. "I feel proud I helped it get to the ocean. And maybe someday I'll rescue its pufflings," said Sunna Tórshamar Georgsdóttir, a member of the Puffling Patrol. What drives the people to help these birds? The writer concludes, "Hope is the thing that drives the people of Heimaey to care for pufflings."
|
|
More:
