Puffin population declared ‘stable’ on the Farne Islands but concern for shags and guillemots

The first full count of the seabirds since 2019 has been estimated at around 50,000 pairs, compared to nearly 44,000 five years ago.

Avian influenza (bird flu) was also thankfully absent – hinting that the seabirds have perhaps built a natural resilience to the disease.

National Trust area ranger on the Farne Islands, Sophia Jackson said: “We feared the worse after we sadly collected 938 dead puffins in 2022 and 2023 which had died due to bird flu – but it’s been amazing to get this positive news; and it seems due to the species’ own ‘self-isolating’ behaviours that they have weathered this particular storm.”

Puffins are the only seabirds that lay their eggs in burrows on the vegetated areas of the islands, and typically return to the same burrow each year to breed. During the breeding season they also regularly clean out the nests – again natural behaviours which the rangers suspect has helped numbers remain stable.

Sophia continued: “We think another reason for puffins doing well this year is down to the weather. Although over the winter we saw heavy rain and storms – during the breeding season, despite regular periods of rain we luckily avoided any storms which will have helped the puffins ability to fish for sandeels, their preferred food source.”

A particular interesting finding was the variance in puffin numbers across the islands between this year and the last count, with fewer pairs recorded on the outer islands and more appearing to nest on Inner Farne, the largest of the archipelago, where 26,552 pairs were recorded.

Sophia concluded: “From October to December the Farnes is also a key site for grey seals returning to pup. Last year, through that period the weather was particularly wet and stormy and we suspect that the seals were forced to pup further away from the shoreline to ensure their baby seals were safely out of the way of the crashing waves.

“This meant the seals moved onto vegetated areas with their weight causing some of the burrows to collapse. Returning puffins who couldn’t identify their burrows may therefore have decided to relocate their burrows to another island.”

Preliminary results from other seabird counts show that some species appear to be struggling, particularly shags whose numbers were down by 75% on the Inner group of islands (228 pairs on the Inner group of islands in 2023 compared to 56 pairs in 2024) and guillemot numbers are down by 37% (18,416 in 2023 compared to 11,643 in 2024)[4].

Thomas Hendry, area ranger for the Farne Islands explains: “Although we didn’t pick up a particularly large number of shags during the two seasons where we experienced bird flu (172 in total) we fear that the more extreme weather and frequent storms during the winter really disrupted their ability to feed.

“In comparison, guillemots were hit hard by bird flu – with over 3,500 picked up in the two years the islands had to close, and no way of knowing how many more died at sea. This is likely due to them being cliff nesting birds – packing themselves in tightly with the other species that breed in this manner.”