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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 1985 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, that is has also become a massive collection of puffin art of all types, a rather large eclectic collection of puffins from all the places I have traveled even finding a puffin box for whose knows what in the mountains of southern Tuscany a few years ago, painted by a very good artist. Maybe passion is not the right word, obsession perhaps. The wandering part, as I noted previously, comes from my passion for exploration. This is how I like to travel, not necessarily on a set path, but to just wander around, and yes, I do get to see all the important sites of a destination, just not necessarily in any particular order. I guess travel has been in my blood since an early age, and the puffin has become my spirit animal. A crazy film director/producer friend of mine said that the bird is my totem. Makes perfect sense since I saw my first one in Alaska those many years ago.
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, that is has also become a massive collection of puffin art of all types, a rather large eclectic collection of puffins from all the places I have traveled even finding a puffin box for whose knows what in the mountains of southern Tuscany a few years ago, painted by a very good artist. Maybe passion is not the right word, obsession perhaps. The wandering part, as I noted previously, comes from my passion for exploration. This is how I like to travel, not necessarily on a set path, but to just wander around, and yes, I do get to see all the important sites of a destination, just not necessarily in any particular order. I guess travel has been in my blood since an early age, and the puffin has become my spirit animal. A crazy film director/producer friend of mine said that the bird is my totem. Makes perfect sense since I saw my first one in Alaska those many years ago.
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!
