Dash is an Atlantic puffin. His wings beat about 9 times every second, and he cruises over the sea at about 63 km/h.
When Dash dives, he keeps flying. Under the water a puffin swims with its wings and steers with its orange feet.
Backward-pointing spines inside his mouth hold each fish, so he can open his bill for the next one. Worldwide, Atlantic puffins are listed Vulnerable by the IUCN.
Dash beats his short wings about nine times every second. He swoops down from the cliff to the sea, then dives in and keeps flying, under the water, with the very same wings. He is a little shorter than a school ruler.
Dash is an Atlantic puffin. He comes ashore only to raise a family, on grassy cliff-tops and rocky slopes of islands in the cold North Atlantic, from Maine and Greenland to Iceland, Norway and Britain. The rest of the year he lives far out at sea. He is 26 to 29 centimeters (10 to 11.5 inches) long, and he weighs 310 to 550 grams (11 to 19 ounces). His back, wings and collar are black, and his belly is white. His face is greyish white, with a red ring round each eye. His feet are bright orange. His big striped beak has a pale yellow rim, blue-grey plates and a red-orange tip.
The power is the flappers. His wings are short, and they beat about nine times every second, around 550 times a minute. He cruises at about 63 kilometers an hour (39 miles an hour), and he flies faster still when he dives from the cliffs toward the sea. Under the water the same wings swim. They push on the way up as well as the way down, while his feet steer. Most of his fish are caught within 30 meters (98 feet) of the surface, and most dives last 20 to 30 seconds. Back at the colony, he and his mate dig a burrow in the turf or under the boulders, and one egg is kept warm by both of them.
A free mystery hunt about the Atlantic puffin, to print at home. Mariana and Fenekie are still hiding the clues. Strike's Explorer's Hunt is ready now.
Rather just listen? Both are podcasts too: Explorer Club on Spotify, Bedtime Stories on Spotify, or any other podcast app.
Twenty-one painted scenes follow Dash from a green cliff in the cold North Atlantic. A puffin a little shorter than a school ruler listens for a peep from under the grass. Short wings. Nine beats a second. A beak full of silver. And one morning, the sea below the cliff is empty. How far will he fly? For curious explorers, ages 4-8.
Find it on AmazonWe are still painting Dash the Sea Arrow's stickers, shirts and prints. The rest of the club is already in the shop.
A puffin can hold a row of little silver fish in his beak while he catches more. About 10 is a normal load, and the British record is 62.
Every summer his beak grows colourful plates. After the breeding season, a set of them falls off, and the plates grow back before the next season.
The red-orange part of his beak gains a groove as he gets older. Puffins do not usually breed until they have at least two.
Two wild puffins have been seen scratching an itch with a stick. It was the first time a wild bird was recorded doing that.
Dash's kind, the Atlantic puffin, is listed Vulnerable by the IUCN, the group that tracks how animals are doing worldwide. It was last checked in 2018, and it has been Vulnerable at every review since 2015. Its numbers are falling. In Europe, where most puffins breed, the kind is listed Endangered. As the sea warms, the small fish that puffins feed their chicks, sandeels and young herring, move or become hard to find. Many of Iceland's colonies have almost always failed to raise chicks since 2003. There is hope, too. In March 2024 the UK and Scottish governments closed their waters to sandeel fishing to protect seabirds. In Maine, Project Puffin brought chicks back to an island that had lost its puffins, and a record 213 burrows were counted there in 2026. In Iceland, local children search the streets at night for lost pufflings that mistake town lights for the moon. In 2024 they rescued more than 4,200. 1% of all Fenekie Explorer Club sales supports wildlife conservation.