Record puffin count on small Welsh island for second year running

Record puffin count on small island for second year running 18 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAngharad ThomasBBC Wales Getty ImagesPuffin numbers are declining in many areas, but Skomer is bucking the trendA record number of puffins have been counted for the second year running on a small island off Pembrokeshire. The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW), said 52,019 puffins were documented on Skomer Island this year - 8,000 more than in 2025. The charity said it was a "very pleasant surprise" because it was not expecting such a high count.Skomer is a 1.13 sq m (2.92 sq km) internationally important seabird island. It is less than a mile from the coast and its isolation means birds are protected from predators and people.As well as a growing population of puffins, Skomer is also home to 350,000 breeding pairs of manx shearwaters and thousands of guillemots and razorbills.Harry Trump/ Getty ImagesThe Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales were 'pleasantly surprised' the puffin population increased again this year The WTSWW undertakes its annual seabird count on the island to monitor the population of birds that return every spring to breed.Leighton Newman, Skomer Island Warden for WTSWW, said: "After the tragic number of seabirds washing up on beaches across southern Europe earlier this year... it's a very pleasant surprise to see the puffin population thriving."The Skomer team set out on a calm, clear evening with binoculars and notepad in hand to count every single puffin on land, in the sky and at sea.The island is broken up into seven sections, and the team must work against the clock and the elements to make sure they have accounted for every puffin.Too early in the season and the bulk of birds will not have returned, too late and they will be settled on eggs in their burrows.The same method has been used to count the puffins since the 1980s, so they can compare more than 40 years of puffin population d...