‘A key moment is when the pufflings leave the islands. This is usually at night time as it is much safer, and if the weather is calm we leave the Peal Tower door open and sometimes hear the pufflings tip-tapping across the stone floor before they realise they have taken a wrong turn and hurry back out the front door, towards the sea,’ says Sophie Jackson.
Jackson is just one of the area rangers on the Farne Islands, who will be taking part in this year’s puffin count, carried out by the National Trust to aid their conservation efforts. The endangered birds make the annual migration to return to the islands, which are 1.5 miles off the coast of Northumberland, to breed, build burrows and lay their eggs which eventually hatch into — the adorably named — pufflings.
The medieval Pele Tower on Inner Farne.
Puffins hunt a variety of small fish, including herring, hake, capelin and sand lance.
According to the Trust, the North Sea archipelago is internationally recognised as a vital sanctuary for the 200,000 returning seabirds. They’ve been caring for the islands for 100 years, taking over the monitoring of seabirds in the middle of the last century. Following the islands' three seasons of closure between 2020-2024 — owing to the outbreak of first, Covid, and then, bird flu — this year’s count is vital.
The Atlantic puffin was given ‘vulnerable’ status in 2015 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature after numbers dropped worldwide. The puffin is also on the British Trust for Ornithology’s red list. The 28 islands are a wildlife hub, crucial, not only for puffins, but for 23 species of seabird. Grey seals also call it home each winter, and dolphins and basking sharks have been spotted swimming nearby.
As a ranger, Jackson is intimately familiar with the islands' rich history of fauna and explains that chronicling this wildlife has been a long-held tradition. The earliest official records for seabirds date from 1913, but reports for the majority of returning bird species started in the 1920s, ‘thanks to the “watchers” stationed on the islands over the summer period’. In 1939, one report noted that puffin numbers were increasing; Jackson’s thinks the boost in numbers is often aligned with the islands' environmental protections — they were designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1951, and as a Special Protected Area in 1985.
Grey seals are abundant on the islands.
Clifftop nests on Inner Farne.
‘Looking back on the records for the different populations it is very clear how important regular monitoring of the different seabird populations has been,’ Jackson says. Last year, the team were relieved to discover that the puffin population was ‘stable’, with 50,000 pairs recorded (puffins, loyally, mate for life). Other species were less fortunate, and a dip in shags and terns — including Arctic terns, common terns and sandwich terns — was recognised.
Richard Bevan, a zoology lecturer at Newcastle University has been conducting research on the islands since 1999: ‘I've still got a photograph from my first visit of me on Staple Island with a shag pecking my boot. The islands themselves are the same as they were 20 years ago; what has changed is the wildlife. It's all still here, but the numbers have changed over time. Puffins have increased. Others, like the terns, have been declining. Those shags that once were pecking at my boot on Staple Island have gone from those areas.’
Fancy a shag on Farne Islands? Unfortunately, they are in decline.
While foraging, Atlantic puffins can stay under water up to one minute and can dive up to 40 meters deep.
To help further monitor the puffins, a new tracking system using coloured rings — the second project of its kind in England – is being introduced. The idea is that rangers from other areas and the general public will be able to report glimpses of the blue-coloured rings and help the trust in tracking bird numbers.
To celebrate their centenary, the conservation charity has also set up two live streams — one of the puffin burrows and a second of birds nesting on the cliffs. The idea is that, by allowing more people to watch and learn about these lovable birds, puffins will be populating the Farne Islands for many years to come.
For more information and to donate to the National Trust, go to their website. The public can report sightings of seabirds on the Farne Islands by emailing farneislands@nationaltrust.org.uk.
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