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Posted: 9th September 2024

Farne Islands puffin numbers stable after avian flu
Over 900 puffins were found dead on the islands during the avian flu outbreak.
A full count has been carried out for the first time in five years.

The National Trust has successfully conducted its first full count of the puffin population on the Farne Islands since 2019.

The islands, off the coast of Northumberland, are home to around 200,000 seabirds in total, including puffins, Arctic terns and kittiwakes. The charity carefully monitors seabird numbers, but was unable to do so in recent years due to the impact of avian influenza.

Counting numbers across eight of the 28 islands, the team of 11 National Trust rangers estimated the population to be around 50,000 pairs. This is a 15 per cent increase on the estimate of almost 44,000 pairs in 2019.

However, the count did reveal that there were fewer pairs of puffins on the outer islands compared to 2019. More were nesting on Inner Farne, the largest of the islands.

The rangers, who counted the puffins by monitoring their burrows for signs of activity, also found no sign of avian flu.

Sophia Jackson, National Trust area ranger on the Farne Islands, 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.”

The National Trust has also revealed that preliminary results from its other seabird counts on the island suggest that both shags and guillemots have seen a drop in numbers.

Initial figures, which are still to be fully collated and verified, suggest that shag numbers have fallen by 75 per cent compared to last year. The number of guillemots has dropped by 37 per cent.

Thomas Hendry, also a National Trust area ranger on the Farne Islands, said: “With numbers still to be verified across the islands, these initial figures from the inner group of islands are concerning.

“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.”

Image © Shutterstock



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