Sit in the grass while puffins land an arm's length away

The path from the village runs north through the outfield toward the viewpoint at á Rógvu, and for most of its length there are puffins in burrows a meter from the boots going past. They are not tame and nobody is feeding them. They are on their own ground, with a hillside of holes behind them and the cliff going down to the water below.

Walking here happens with an approved local guide, because that is the only way anyone walks on Mykines. The island takes two hundred people a day and the outfield is open from ten until five, which is the whole of the arrangement between the visitors and the birds.

Sitting down is the trick. Standing, a person is a shape to fly around; sitting in the grass and waiting is how the distance closes to about a meter. They come in off the sea fast and low with fish held crosswise in the beak, brake badly, and land more or less wherever.

Past the viewpoint the lighthouse stands out on Mykineshólmur with a footbridge across to it, and the group does not go. That path is shut through the season, for the birds nesting along it and for the state of the ground it crosses. Getting turned back by a bird is a fairly Faroese way to spend an afternoon.