After another six weeks, it’s time for the chick to fledge, or take its first flight. The puffling instinctively knows what to do. Under the cover of darkness, when fewer predators like gulls are around, the young bird waddles to the edge of a cliff and jumps. It flies out to sea, where it will spend most of its life floating on the ocean’s surface, only returning to land to raise a family of its own.
But for some pufflings, this first flight doesn’t go as planned. The chicks navigate to the ocean by the light of the moon and stars. Artificial lighting, however, can brighten the night sky. This light pollution can lead the birds astray (see Blinded by the Light). Instead of heading toward the sea, the birds move toward the lights of towns. “They fly into windows, go into rooms where people are sleeping, land on roads,” says Hörður Baldvinsson. He’s the managing director of the Knowledge Center in the Westman Islands, which supports local scientific study. “The chicks are just running around without a clue,” says Baldvinsson. Panicked, the pufflings try to hide.