Puffin Patrol

It’s spring on the North Atlantic and millions of Atlantic Puffins are making their way home to breed. These glorious little clown-like birds are full of contradictions. They spend eight months of the year living alone at sea, but they are extremely social when they return to land, living in jam-packed colonies. On Gull Island, just south of St John’s, Newfoundland, it’s breeding season for over 300,000 pairs of North Atlantic puffins. The birds get right down to business, using their shovel-like beaks and their big feet to dig new burrows to protect their single precious egg.