Loading Puffling Patrol…
When it gets properly dark tonight, where the pysjur come down, and exactly what to do with the one in your box — with the wind at Stórhöfði, because the patrol's own guidance turns on it.
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The pufflings are coming down again. This page has the one thing that changes every night — when it actually gets dark enough for them to leave the burrows — alongside the Pysjueftirlit's own guidance on where to look, how to keep one until morning, and where to let it go. Register every bird you find at lundi.is: that count is the whole point of the patrol.
The patrol is out
Night 17 of about 39 — usually the busiest stretch.
About 23 nights left.
The birds are not on a calendar. The first pysja of 2026 was found on 8 August, and the patrol's own guidance says the last ones turn up about four to five weeks after the first, with the count usually peaking two to three weeks in. The window here is an estimate of that, not a rule — Pysjueftirlitið's own page is the authority, and if birds are still coming down after it closes, they are.
Dark from 22:01 until 04:51.
Sunset 21:06. 6 hours 50 minutes of darkness.
Darkness is arriving about 4 minutes earlier each night.
| Night | Sunset | Dark from | Light again |
|---|---|---|---|
| tonight | 21:06 | 22:01 | 04:51 |
| Tue, 25 Aug | 21:02 | 21:57 | 04:55 |
| Wed, 26 Aug | 20:59 | 21:53 | 04:58 |
| Thu, 27 Aug |
| 20:55 |
| 21:49 |
| 05:01 |
| Fri, 28 Aug | 20:52 | 21:45 | 05:05 |
| Sat, 29 Aug | 20:48 | 21:42 | 05:08 |
The sandy beach, and the most popular spot because it is safe for children.
Seals, gulls and skuas wait here for exactly this. Worth having a second spot in mind.
A cliff-edge release, so the birds get more distance and can fly properly clear of the shore. There is a wall built at one place here to make it safer for younger children.
Stay well back from the edge.
The other cliff-edge option. You can also sit down and set them on the grass instead of throwing them, and let them go in their own time — if one runs into a puffin hole that is fine, it will head out to sea eventually.
Stay well back from the edge.
A bridge built at the course that also works well as a release point, and is sheltered.
There is ship oil on the water in the harbour. A bird that gets oiled there is finished unless it is caught again and cleaned, which is work the patrol's volunteers end up doing every year.
If a bird looks light, still downy, oiled or hurt, do not release it — contact Pysjueftirlitið through their Facebook page (the link is on lundi.is) before you do anything else. The patrol runs a rehab unit for birds that are too small to go, and Iceland's only puffin rescue centre is here on Heimaey.
Puffin Rescue Centre, SEA LIFE Trust Beluga Whale Sanctuary
Iceland's only puffin rescue centre. It takes in the pufflings and adult puffins found each year on Heimaey that need extra care, and its animal-care team assesses each one for treatment or release. Check the opening hours on their own page before setting off.
The patrol has counted the town's pufflings since 2003, and it counts them by asking everyone to report what they found. Enter the date, the total number you rescued, and the weights of any you managed to put on a scale — a kitchen scale and a plastic bowl is all they use themselves. One entry per day, and it takes a minute. The running total for this season is on lundi.is.
Pysjueftirlitið
The patrol itself — reach it through the Facebook page linked from lundi.is
22:01
Dark from — Night 17 of about 39 — usually the busiest stretch.
Source: Pysjueftirlitið (Þekkingarsetur Vestmannaeyja), lundi.is, checked 14 August 2026 (last week).
Stórhöfði: 14 km/h from the NNE.
Measured .
Pysjueftirlitið: "if there are strong winds from the north the pufflings can more likely be found higher up in town". The wind is from the northern quarter right now, so it is worth walking the streets above the harbour as well as Eiðið.
“Strong” here means a mean wind of 39 km/h or more — our own threshold. The patrol describes the weather in words, not numbers.
Based on information provided by the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration (IRCA)