Go tell it to the birds - no, really

THEY'RE good listeners, they never interrupt, and are happy being paid in fish. "Puffin therapy" is now on offer to anyone seeking to improve their mental health by spending time with the popular seabird.

The psychologist-backed trips see clients taken to the remote island of Lunga, off Mull, where about 3,000 puffins flock at this time of year to breed.

The visitors spend several hours "communing" with the puffins and, rather than reclining on a therapist's couch, lie flat on the grass among the birds, sometimes getting within a few inches of them.

"I coined the term (puffin therapy] after seeing how people reacted after going ashore to look at the puffins," said Iain Morrison of tour company Turus Mara, based near Dervaig on Mull, which runs the trips.

"They're always much happier and calmer when they come back, they've always got smiles on their faces and it's much cheaper than seeing a shrink."

The puffins congregate on Lunga, one of the uninhabited Treshnish Isles, to rear their young during the summer. They are often are so tame that they will get close enough to people to tug their shoe laces.

"They are the tamest wild creature you'll come across," said Morrison. "You'll see people go on to the island with great big photo lenses standing 50 yards away and then walk in closer and closer until eventually the puffin is looking up at them from between their toes.

"They definitely have a therapeutic effect. If you can get that close to something that is so comical and endearing, it will do you a lot of good."

Dr Nick Baylis, a consultant psychologist and wellbeing expert, said: "As animals ourselves, we have a born need to be in the wild and if we don't spend time in nature, it can make us ill. Communing with the wild, and with birds like puffins, is as important as sunshine or sleep or vitamin C. Puffin therapy is a great way to get that fix."

The Treshnish Isles, which are designated an area of Special Scientific Interest for their rich and varied wildlife, are owned by the Hebridean Trust. Turus Mara is one of just a handful of tour companies allowed to take visitors ashore on Lunga and also acts as honorary warden for the trust.

The islands are also designated a Special Protection Area under the European Commission directive on the conservation of wild birds, and in June the Treshnish Isles Auk Ringing Group spends a week on Lunga compiling a report on the island's birdlife for the Seabird Colony Register.

Baylis said that people reacted to spending time with puffins in a similar way to those who had swum with dolphins.

"For long-term depressed people, swimming with dolphins can be incredibly beneficial," he said.

"Therapists have often had breakthroughs with depressed patients who swim with dolphins.

"It's not necessarily that something extraordinary is going on, it's just the sheer unusualness and surprise of the situation. The more time we spend doing these sorts of things, the better for our mind, body and general wellbeing."