By Paul Homewood
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-44236755
One theory put forward to explain the recent drop in puffin numbers on the Farne Islands is “wetter summers”, which can flood their burrows where the chicks are hatching.
So I checked the Met Office data for that region, England E & NE, and lo and behold we find that summers are not any wetter than in the past:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/datasets
The only really wet summer in the last decade was 2012, but this was not as wet as either 1912 or 1956. In any event, the puffin count in 2013 showed a small increase over the previous one in 2008.
Adult puffins return to their breeding sites in late March or early April, and lay a single egg in late April. It may therefore be relevant to look at Spring rainfall as well:
Fortunately for the puffins, rainfall in Spring has not been exceptional in recent years, indeed quite the opposite.
The RSPB website has section on puffins, which lists their main threats:
The puffin is included on the Amber list of UK Birds of Conservation Concern. It is very vulnerable to adverse changes in the environment because its breeding population is concentrated on a small number of sites. There have also been large population declines over much of its European range.
The main threat to puffins is the changes in distribution and numbers of small fish, while ground predators (eg rat, mink, cat) introduced to breeding colonies and pollution are also serious hazards.
For instance, oil leaked from the Torrey Canyon in 1967 killed 85 per cent of the French puffins. Because of their low reproductive rate, puffins can take decades to recover from this kind of incident.
Because the puffin is so widespread, the only realistic conservation measures are sustainable exploitation of the seas, a reduction in incidence of marine pollution, and preventing ground predators reaching nesting colonies.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/puffin/threats/
No mention of climate change! Presumably somebody did not read the memo.
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