On the Westman Islands, the group of islands off the southern coast of Iceland, there

are these steep cliffs that jet out over the ocean.

And every spring and summer, these cliffs come to life with Atlantic puffins.

These black and white sea birds with expressive, wistful looking eyes and a bright orange beak.

They're also very cute.

These islands are home to the largest Atlantic puffin colony on the planet.

Typically, more than 1.5 million puffins flock here each year to take up residents in their

burrows and breed.

And that's around one-fifth of the world's total Atlantic puffin population.

And if all goes well, their pufflings, these small fluffy chicks, emerge from their burrows

in the late summer and early fall and set out over the ocean where they'll spend the

next few years of their lives.

But some of them, actually thousands of them, wouldn't make it were it not for the puffin

patrol.

I'm Abby Peralt and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible

and wondrous places.

Today we're heading to Jaime, the largest of the Westman Islands, where we'll meet the

local heroes who head out into the streets, searching for wayward pufflings.

Very cute but very fast wayward pufflings, night after night.

But not on school nights, we don't get to stay up that long.

After this.

Atlantic puffins are a central part of the human culture in the Westman Islands.

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