Fears UK puffins may go the way of the dodo as colony collapses
THRUSTING your hand into an underground puffin burrow is not an activity to be taken lightly.
For a start, should the protective homeowner be present there is every chance of a nasty nip.
Take a wrong turn and you could also find yourself knuckle-deep in puffin guano because the ultra-hygienic birds like to dig a separate “lavatory” tunnel.
But for the past few weeks, that is what National Trust rangers on the Farne Islands in Northumberland have been braving during their five-yearly puffin census. The rangers are not just looking for adult birds, but also for their eggs and pufflings.
So far the news has been bleak. The puffins arrived four weeks later than usual and initial estimates suggest the number of breeding pairs has fallen by 12 per cent.
A combination of climate change, overfishing, plastic pollution and extreme weather has left the little seabirds struggling for survival.
It means thousands of birds have vanished since the last count in 2013, with just 35,000 breeding pairs probably remaining. At the current rate of decline, conservationists forecast that the entire colony could vanish within 50 years, an alarming trend that is being seen across Britain.
As the count continued on Inner Farne yesterday, Anne Wilson, who has volunteered on the islands for 25 years, recording the change in populations, said: “We haven’t found a single egg yet, which is worrying.”
With its forlorn expression, festively orange feet and clumsy shuffling gait, the Atlantic puffin has always held a special place among British birds.
But since 2015 it has been classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for The Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is on the British Trust for Ornithology’s Red List for species conservation in the UK.
Puffin numbers on the Farne Islands have been monitored since 1939, when just 3,000 pairs were recorded, but numbers rose steadily until 2008, when the population declined by a third from 55,674 to 36,835.
The last census showed a slight improvement with numbers rising to 39,962 breeding pairs. But the trust is expecting a new count of around 35,000 and is now planning annual monitoring.
Figures for one of the largest islands, Brownsman, showed a huge 42 per cent decline, and some of the small isles are down 33 per cent. And even though the large island of Staple has seen a 17 per cent boost, overall numbers are falling precipitously.
“Initial findings are concerning,” said Tom Hendry, a National Trust ranger. “Numbers could be down due to stormy or wetter weather as well as changes in the sand eel population, which is one of their staple foods. If the final results reflect this drop, this will increase the need for us to monitor these beautiful clowns of the sea more frequently.
“Predictions have been made that within the next 50 to 100 years these stunning birds will completely die out on the Farnes.
“If the causes of puffin decline are what we expect, it will require a bigger effort to encourage everyone to think about how we can prevent overfishing, reduce our use of single-use plastics and limit our use of non-renewable energy, but it can be done.”
The National Trust rangers live fulltime on the islands between March and December.
The remote habitat is also home to large numbers of terns, eider ducks, guillemots, kittiwakes and seals. Dolphins are also often spotted between the islands and the mainland.
For the census, rangers stake out 30 plots per island and check all the burrows within a five metre radius.
So far 19,718 breeding pairs have been counted across the four main islands, a fall of 2,686 or 12 per cent, since 2013.
The full results of the census will be announced in October.