See-sawing fortunes for seabirds as puffin count gets underway on the Farne Islands in Northumberland

Eight of the islands are being surveyed by the National Trust to get a critically overdue picture of the red-listed seabird’s numbers.

Counts in four successive years have been disrupted by the Covid pandemic and avian influenza but limited surveys suggest the average number of breeding puffin pairs was fewer than 40,000 over the past four years compared with nearly 44,000 in 2019.

There are also concerns that species such as shags and arctic terns are struggling, although rangers are hopeful the islands are clear of the bird flu which has had such a devastating impact in the past two years.

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.”

But he admitted it could still be a challenging season for seabirds on the Farnes and around the country.

“Two seasons of bird flu and challenging weather conditions with many storms have certainly taken a toll on the colonies, and numbers of certain populations are less than what we'd have hoped for,” he said.

“Shags in particular seem to be having a truly catastrophic year; faced with more extreme weather, it looks like many of them perished in the storms last autumn which would have restricted their ability to feed and we are seeing only about 15% of these birds attempting to breed that we have come to expect.”

Many other species, including the Arctic terns, have also arrived later and in smaller numbers than typical, likely affected by what has been a particularly unsettled and wet spring.

Guillemot numbers also appear to be down by 46%, showing large gaps on the cliff in areas which were very crowded before the avian influenza outbreaks as colonies struggle to recover.

Some gannets spotted on the islands, now have completely black eyes – which scientists think could be a possible sign of a previous avian influenza infection.

To help tackle these varied challenges, rangers have been working hard to create an optimum habitat for the birds, which includes expansive vegetation management as well as the creation of additional habitat for terns by creating nest patches using sand and gravel and placing decoy birds to attract them.

This work was also supported by the volunteer conservation team from the Northumberland Coast National Landscape, and the Space for Shorebirds team.

Ben McCarthy, head of nature conservation at the National Trust said: “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.”