Chapter 11

Protect the Pufflings!

Holly picked up the post card from the pile of documents and examined it closely. It was a picture of a mother puffin and her baby pufflings on a rocky shore. The colors were faded, but she could still see the bright orange beak of the adult bird and the fluffy feathers of the chicks.

"Look at this, Dolly and Molly," she said, showing the card to her sisters. "Isn't it cute?"

"Aww, they're adorable," Dolly said, reaching for the card.

"What are they?" Molly asked, squinting at the card.

"They're puffins," Holly said, keeping the card in her hand. "They're birds that live near the ocean. They can fly and swim and dive for fish."

"Wow, that's cool," Molly said, impressed.

"Where did you find it?" Dolly asked.

"It was on top of this pile," Holly said, pointing at the stack of papers on the trunk. "Maybe it belongs to Grandma or Grandpa."

The sisters were spending the summer at their grandmothers' house in Connecticut. They loved exploring the attic, where they found all kinds of old things that belonged to their family. They had formed a club called the Attic Investigatons Club and made it their mission to solve the mysteries of the attic.

Holly flipped over the card and read the message on the back.

"Save the Pufflings!" she read aloud.

"What does that mean?" Dolly asked.

"I don't know," Holly said. "Maybe it's a slogan or a campaign."

"Or maybe it's a clue," Molly said, her eyes shining.

"A clue to what?" Holly asked.

Molly shrugged. "I don't know, but I want to find out."

She grabbed her notebook and pen from her backpack and wrote down "Save the Pufflings" on a blank page.

"Let's investigate," she said, looking at her sisters with excitement.

Holly smiled and nodded. She loved mysteries and puzzles.

Dolly hesitated for a moment. She wasn't sure what they were getting into, but she didn't want to be left out.

"OK," she said, joining her sisters.

The three girls put the post card in their backpack and headed downstairs to ask their grandmother about it.

They didn't know it yet, but they were about to embark on an adventure that would change their lives forever.

Puffins are stocky, short-winged, and short-tailed birds, with black upper parts and white or brownish-grey underparts. The head has a black cap, the face is mainly white, and the feet are orange-red. The bill appears large and colorful during the breeding season. The colorful outer part of the bill is shed after the breeding season, revealing a smaller and duller true bill beneath. Because of their striking appearance they are also referred to as "clowns of the sea" and "sea parrots".

Although the puffins are vocal at their breeding colonies, they are silent at sea. They fly relatively high above the water, typically 10 m (33 ft) as compared with the 1.6 m (5.2 ft) of other auks.