Puffins!!

We've been searching for puffins as we've traveled along the coast, but haven't had much success.  We did see one at the Dyrhólaey Cliffs, but were unable to capture a photo.  Now that we're in the East Fjorlands area of the country, we decided to visit the one of the largest puffin colonies in Iceland in the coastal hamlet of Bakkagerði. An estimated 10,000 pairs of puffins return each year to nest on the cliffs here.

The drive from Seydisfjordur to Bakkagerði was about 1 hour and 15 minutes on both paved an unpaved roads.  It was rainy, windy, and cold all day today, which caused the mountain pass to be quite foggy so we couldn't see anything but the road in front of us --- no great views today.  Once we got out of the "clouds" and closer to sea level, the coastal views were quite nice as we watched the waves crash against the rocks along the shoreline.

We were not disappointed!  We literally saw thousands of puffins along the cliffs.  A viewing platform has been installed that allowed us to get close to the puffins without disturbing them or their nests. Between ignoring us completely to viewing us with a bit of curiosity, the puffins continued with their daily routine of flying out over the sea to catch fish and returning to the nest with their catch.

They are fascinating birds to watch and we love their colorful beaks and the playful way they seem to move around. We could have stayed all day just watching them, but the weather decided for us that we would just spend an hour or so. It was well worth it.