Image courtesy of BBC Radio 4

I am a great lover of podcasts and at regular intervals have a binge listen to catch up on my favourites or those that I have stumbled across. Today, whilst undertaking some rather brain numbing scanning I caught up with my listening of this series from BBC Radio 4 – Planet Puffin.

Seeing a Puffin is on my bucket list and I have hopes that I may manage it before the end of July, after which these wonderful birds head back out to sea where they spend the winter. If not, it will be on the agenda for next year.

I am not a particular fan of birds, likely put off by living by the coast for two decades where I routinely had to strategically hang washing out or nip to the bin because we had seagulls nesting on the roof of the house and, if they spotted movement would not hesitate to “dive bomb” you. Having moved away from the coast, I now watch the array of regular birds that appear in the garden. I digress.

There is something that I find very uplifting about Puffins and that is not new. As far back as a decade ago, we visited the Isle of Arran and for my wedding anniversary I was given by by husband a lovely ornament of a Puffin, made by Lamlash Pottery. I can see that Puffin ornament from where I sit, as I type this.

I rarely impulse purchase anything, but did purchase a lovely Puffin picture and clock on two different shopping trips last year.  I was therefore delighted to stumble across this podcast some weeks ago.

Each week the interviewers spend time on the Isle of May, where there is a substantial breeding ground for Puffins. The birds, mate at sea and come onto land to have their young. Island hopping in Scotland is also on the bucket list, so I may well see a Puffin on the Isle of May in the future; fingers crossed!