See-sawing fortunes for seabirds on the Farne Islands as puffin count gets underway - National Trust

For the first time since 2019, rangers on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, cared for by the National Trust, are gearing up to carry out a full puffin census, surveying eight of the 28 islands to get a vitally needed and critically overdue picture of the red-listed seabird’s numbers.

Counts in recent years have been adapted and carried out amid severe disruptions, firstly due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 - which resulted in the islands having to close with rangers limited to working as and when restrictions allowed – and subsequently due to outbreaks of avian influenza in 2022 and 2023.

As a result, this year’s full count will be pivotal for obtaining a complete picture of how the quirky seabirds are faring, with limited sample surveys across only two to four islands over the last four years, indicating the average number of breeding pairs as under 40,000 compared to nearly 44,000 back in 2019.

Tom Hendry, Area Ranger for the National Trust on the Farne Islands said: “All the seabirds which return here to breed, as well as the ones that live here all year round, have been through an incredibly rough time these past few years. We know over 9,600 seabirds perished on the islands due to bird flu – with thousands more likely to have died at sea – but thankfully, as yet we have not seen any signs of the disease since the seabirds have returned to breed. As we start this year’s count, the fact that bird flu has so far been absent is extremely welcome, and we’re really hoping that the puffins, and all our seabirds will have a successful breeding season.”

Ben McCarthy, Head of Nature Conservation at the National Trust said: “Our breeding seabird colonies are internationally important, but are being impacted by many pressures such as food availability and climate change. The most recent Seabirds Count national census (2015-2021) provides clear evidence of the fate of many of these species and the importance of the Farnes Islands as a key site for England and the importance of our conservation work. The on-going pressures the birds face each year is a sombre reminder of the work that still needs to be done to restore nature. Our monitoring efforts are a crucial piece of the jigsaw in understanding how efforts to conserve these birds are faring and just how much work is still left to do if we want to achieve the international targets of 30% of our seas being restored and healthy for nature by 2030.”