Puffin Populations Fall By 34% In Only Five Years At UK's Biggest Nesting Site - Independent

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Numbers of puffins at England's largest colony, on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, have mysteriously tumbled by a third in the past five years. Breeding pairs of the small seabirds have decreased on the National Trust-owned islands from 55,674 in 2003 to 36,500 this year.

Results of the count, which was carried out by the team of nine National Trust wardens across eight of the islands, came as a shock. All eight islands showed a decrease in population, with four showing a dramatic decrease of up to 50 per cent. "The results from this survey have completely surprised us, as we were predicting another rise in the numbers of breeding pairs," said the head warden, David Steel. "Stocks of sand eels, the staple food of puffins in the summer, are in good supply around the islands and there is a lack of ground predators, creating a good environment for puffins to breed."

He added: "Extensive monitoring work shows that good numbers of young puffins are successfully fledging each year but it would appear they're just not coming back to the islands the following years. Presumably fewer birds are surviving over winter than are needed to maintain current numbers."

Staple Island and Brownsman Island, where the majority of puffins can be found, have seen the numbers of breeding pairs fall by more than 30 per cent since the last survey was carried out in 2003.

EDIT

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/mystery-of-tumbling-puffin-population-877794.html