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Where did the name come from?
The name Wandering Puffin came about as I have a passion for puffins, the little birds with colorful beaks, commonly confused with penguins, the first of which I saw in Alaska back in 1987 and also commonly known as sea parrots, clowns of the sea due to their comical appearance and colorful beaks. |
They are also known as Little Friar (or Fratercula) from their scientific name, referencing their black and white plumage resembling monastic robes. And, there are three species of puffins, two of which reside in the north Pacific region and one, known as the north Atlantic or Common Puffin. The two from the Pacific side are the Tufted Puffin and the Horned Puffin.
Puffins are confused with penguins, and except for the fact that they are both seabirds, being very good divers, as well as black and white, that is where the similarities end. They are not related but it does seem that they do wander the globe quite a bit and therefore, offered the perfect name when I was looking for a name for my company back in 2007.
I first discovered these small birds when I was on an Alaskan halibut fishing trip and became sea sick. Nothing I wish upon anyone, but a tip that anyone will give you when sea sick is to focus on the horizon. My luck being that day was a cloudy day, nothing much to focus on, especially not the horizon. The only thing I could find in the water, after feeding the fish and not catching any halibut, was a small bird, a puffin floating around in the sea, and it was my first encounter with a puffin. That image and the experience I had that day has stuck with me ever since and the key component of why the Wandering Puffin.
The Wandering part is simply how I have always traveled since the beginning and so putting the puffin which became such a part of me, and the style of travel, well, it was a natural.
The puffin has become such a big part of my life, really a passion. I have accumulated a rather large collection of puffin art of all types, paintings, drawings, you name it. It is a large eclectic collection of puffin stuff from many of world I have traveled, even having found a beautifully painted trinket box in a little village in the mountains of southern Tuscany just a few years ago, painted by a very good artist. And puffins do not exist there at all. In fact, many of the pieces of art in my collection have been found where puffins do not live out their lives, so it is always fascinating when I come upon a unique piece in a place I would not have expected to find one. Maybe passion is not the right word, maybe obsession is a better choice of word for how I feel about the puffins.
In the end, the collection of puffin stuff came with me, as it was a part of me from early on, so now living in Rome, it was one of the few sentimental collections along with stamp collection, the one my grandfather started with me back when I was 6 years of age.
Puffins are confused with penguins, and except for the fact that they are both seabirds, being very good divers, as well as black and white, that is where the similarities end. They are not related but it does seem that they do wander the globe quite a bit and therefore, offered the perfect name when I was looking for a name for my company back in 2007.
I first discovered these small birds when I was on an Alaskan halibut fishing trip and became sea sick. Nothing I wish upon anyone, but a tip that anyone will give you when sea sick is to focus on the horizon. My luck being that day was a cloudy day, nothing much to focus on, especially not the horizon. The only thing I could find in the water, after feeding the fish and not catching any halibut, was a small bird, a puffin floating around in the sea, and it was my first encounter with a puffin. That image and the experience I had that day has stuck with me ever since and the key component of why the Wandering Puffin.
The Wandering part is simply how I have always traveled since the beginning and so putting the puffin which became such a part of me, and the style of travel, well, it was a natural.
The puffin has become such a big part of my life, really a passion. I have accumulated a rather large collection of puffin art of all types, paintings, drawings, you name it. It is a large eclectic collection of puffin stuff from many of world I have traveled, even having found a beautifully painted trinket box in a little village in the mountains of southern Tuscany just a few years ago, painted by a very good artist. And puffins do not exist there at all. In fact, many of the pieces of art in my collection have been found where puffins do not live out their lives, so it is always fascinating when I come upon a unique piece in a place I would not have expected to find one. Maybe passion is not the right word, maybe obsession is a better choice of word for how I feel about the puffins.
In the end, the collection of puffin stuff came with me, as it was a part of me from early on, so now living in Rome, it was one of the few sentimental collections along with stamp collection, the one my grandfather started with me back when I was 6 years of age.
Click here to learn about Project Puffin, a program the Wandering Puffin supports!
