Puffins have a summer stop-over in Heimey? Iceland

Puffins take a summer stop-over in Heimey, Iceland - Blog for July 9, 2023 

We had hoped be able to take close up photos of a few of the millions of puffins that stop here briefly every summer for their young. However, it turns out that puffins nest high on cliffs like these beautiful sights that greeted us this morning when we docked off the Westman Islands in Heimey....




Heimey is one of the major puffin stopovers in the world. Iceland Review website (Retieved July 9 at https://www.icelandreview.com/ask-ir/when-do-puffins-arrive-in-iceland/)

"Puffins spend much of their life at sea and are actually only in Iceland for a relatively short time to breed and nest. They tend to arrive in Iceland beginning in April (usually later in the month, just before May) and generally begin to leave in August. "

Although we didn't get any close-ups of live puffins here's a photo of the next best thing:



Not to worry, here's a photo I Googled just now (July 25, 2023) of an actual puffin in Iceland. What a cute little fellow! 


Meanwhile, cliffs like those pictured above are formed from volcanos that happen every so often in Iceland.  Heimey experienced one such volcano in 1973 which destroyed much of the town. Miraculously all of the townspeople survived.  (Most of the town was evacuated except for a few emergency responders who stayed behind to slow the volcano.   You can read more about this miracle in https://visitwestmanislands.com/volcanic-eruption-1973/ ).

To this day many Heimey residents find themselves not ready to revisit the events at the local museum that commemorates the volcano and the resilience of the community in rebuilding itself in subsequent years.  



Nature takes, but also gives.  It is this same devastating volcano that gave the town the formations that encircle this safe docking spot ....

  

We are now getting ready for our last evening on board, with a very early wake-up time tomorrow to catch our airport shuttle, arriving home late tomorrow night.



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