Hope for good season as puffins return to island

Puffins have returned to an island after a "depressing start to the year".

Coquet Island in Northumberland is home to about 45,000 breeding seabirds and is where puffins come to nest until the end of summer.

In February, storms and bad weather were blamed for the death of dozens of puffins, which washed up on beaches across the north-east of England and further afield.

Reserve manager for the RSPB on Coquet Island, Sarah Dalyrymple, said: "We don't yet know what impact the winter storms will have had on their numbers, but hopefully it won't have been significant."

She said the puffins would "come and go" gradually over the next few weeks, with numbers building in "rafts of puffins" on the water, "until they decide to come ashore and return to their burrows to nest".

Steven Banks, from Puffin Cruises Amble, said the birds were first sighted on 18 March, only one day later than 2025.

He said it was "a good sign for the start of the season that they're here on time".

"We're hoping for a good season for the puffins, especially after what they've had in the winter, where they were a bit of a concern," Banks said.

At the height of the bad weather, Banks said he was out trying to rescue the puffins which had been affected by the bad weather. He did manage to rescue one with the help of Blyth Wildlife Rescue.

"[It] was quite a depressing start to the year for me to see all these lovely birds that shouldn't be here washing up on the shore," he said.

"It's what the whole town of Amble thrives on now, the puffin," he said. "The whole town depends on the puffin being here.

"Everyone's got their fingers crossed that, you know, we're going to have a pretty good year."

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