Bird of the Week – Tufted Puffin
There aren’t a lot of sea birds that are more spectacular than a Tufted Puffing in breeding plumage. This fancy fellow works as an educational bird in the Sea Bird Aviary at the Seward SeaLife Center.
Tufted Puffin, Seward Sealife Center
Technical stuff: Olympus 1D-X, 300mm lens with a 2.0 teleconverter, f6.3 at 1/500, ISO2500, handheld.
And if you live in Alaska and haven’t visited the Seward SeaLife Center, you’ve missed a treat.
As per usual no offense intended,but Mr. Puffin has a comb back of a similar style and texture as the “Donald’s” fur piece.
Given the Tufted Puffin predates Mr Trump and Mr Trump is of a certain age , I would
1- posit that some ‘tudes of that generation (ours too 🙂 ) snuck in under radar though The Donald would likely deny it til hell froze over :
“…flamboyant affectations
Of appearance are nothing more
Than the male’s emergence from his drab camouflage
Into the gaudy plumage
Which is the birthright of his sex
There is a peculiar notion that elegant plumage
And fine feathers are not proper for the man
When ac—tually
That is the way things are
In most species”
( from My Conviction, HAIR the musical)
“Let it fly in the breeze
And get caught in the trees
Give a home to the fleas in my hair
A home for fleas
A hive for bees
A nest for birds
There ain’t no words
For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder
Of my…
Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair…”
( from Hair, HAIR the musical)
and 2- request we apologize to the Tufted Puffin for the cheap knock-off of his elegant look Mr Trump sports.
The Cowsills. Love that song. Trump…eh…not so much. Now I iz happy somemore.
Tufted Puffin!! Beautiful. To all the dads here, Happy Father’s Day. I believe that includes WC.
Yes, indeed! Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and to all those who, for whatever reason, take on the ‘traditional’ dad role. Thank you, all! beth.
*As an aside, one of my all-time favorite things my dad said was: “Pay close attention to my words…I have cotton stuffed in my ears and can’t hear what I’m saying.”
Yes, he was a wealth of such gems — whether he had a eardrops in his ears (hence the cotton that day), or no. b.
And from me, too.. also. Ditto 😉
Happy as heck to know you are not a crispy critter. Hope your fire season is about done.
yay CO!
We’ve been worrying about you!
(This is my first year without my Dad on Father’s Day. It is very weird and sad.)
Alaska Pi, isn’t it just, though — just totally weird not to have your dad around. Even now, after a dozen years for me, it still is.
I’m ‘unintentionally’ reminded of him pretty much daily, though… I did a lot of soldering and holding and co-assembling and ‘assisting’ and stuff with/for him when he’d repair or make anything. He was a whiz with his hands. And combine his hands with his mind, and WOW! I learned from a master. Because of a childhood bicycling accident, though, he’d lost the use of the first knuckle/joint on his right index finger – I, in watching him as he worked on intricate projects and in working with him on same, seemed to have picked up his “style”. To this day, no matter what ‘close work’ I’m doing, be it picking up a small item off a surface, threading a needle (even though I learned to sew from my mother), or anything similar, I use all but my right index finger in the task. I don’t know why…just the way I learned by example/watching, to do it, I guess. And I’m constantly catching an ‘aware’ glimpse of my hands, tasking away, stiff right index finger first joint and all; I’m reminded, again, of my dad.
I hope your memories of your dad are as constant and as ‘useful’/sweet. Doesn’t make the ‘missing’ go away, but it does help it be less sad. beth.
beth- thank you for the sweetest, most useful way of looking at this getting-used-to-the-weirdness dealie.
Memories of lots of Dad things have been popping up in recent days. I’m trying to find places for them in my head and heart. Dad was my compass in more ways than I can count, though we often disagreed on things to the point of jumping up and down , waving our arms around, and getting red in the face 🙂 ( and then laughing til it hurt )
I Pfffttt! just like my Pop. Always will …
I know the feeling, Alaska Pi, of trying to ‘find a place’ for all the emotions. Truth be told, I’ve got a whole hell of a lot more of my father in me than I’d ever care to have admitted in my younger years when we’d be at loggerheads with each other, too.
I once had a college professor who had us do an exercise — it was to pick a leader, any leader, and list the things about that leader that drove you crazy. The lesson of the exercise, was that what drove you nuts about that leader/person, were traits you, yourself, displayed. No wonder dad and I ‘clashed’ so well, together! I admired him greatly and valued his opinion immensely…it’s just that when I didn’t want to, necessarily, adopt his opinion as my own (and vise-versa) that we got so panties-in-a-wad over things. We eventually taught each other the crucial and invaluable art of simply “walking away.”
For that lesson, too, I’m reminded of, and thank, my dad pretty much on a daily basis; some things are infinitely more important than ‘winning’ a specific point. . . (All those around me, I’m sure, thank my dad for teaching me how to gracefully and honorably truce things, as well!) Funny how, even with his being dead these past dozen years, he’s still teaching me how to navigate this ol’ life of mine. I’m sure your dad is –and will continue to be– doing similar for you…dads, thank heavens!, are just like that. beth..
Very eloquent and touching. Now both you and Pi better quit or you’ll have raindrops falling from my eyes. Dad passed 33 years ago next month-one month after my second and last son was born.
What does that beak of his eat-rocks? Looks like it has the shell crunching power of a parrot. Too lazy today to look up Puffins.
They mostly eat fish.
They are majorly cool to see. Used to get out to the Marble Islands in Glacier Bay to see them fairly often.
Should go again. It was fun.
What’s up with outer middle age and not remembering to go do fun stuff often enough ? Pfft.
Tufted Puffins are tuff.
These are terrific photos – I love this new Mudflats feature!