Rangers on Northumberland's Farne Islands have started the annual puffin count in a critical year for assessing how the seabirds are faring in light of the challenges they face in the North Sea.
During the pandemic, full surveys were unable to be carried out so this is the first year since 2019 that the 14-strong ranger team are able to conduct full surveys across eight of the 28 islands included in the Northumberland Coast AONB designation. 2022 is also the fifth year in the count cycle for being able to determine any sort of population trends.
Puffins nest underground and the count involves rangers monitoring burrows for signs of whether they are occupied. The birds, which are the size of a small bag of sugar, return to breed each year after spending the winter out at sea, arriving back on the islands in late March or early April and stay until the last chicks, or pufflings, fledge in mid-August.
