SCOTLAND's puffin population is being ravaged by the Arctic chill sweeping the country.
The species faces its worse loss of life in 66 years as seabirds, also including razorbills and guillemots, are washing up on beaches from Aberdeenshire and Angus to Northumberland.
Some of the birds have perished from starvation.
A spokesman for RSPB Scotland said: "Despite their small stature puffins are fairly hardy birds, adept at coping with the harsh conditions of life at sea. To hear so many have been discovered dead is unusual and worrying.
"The recent events could
have an impact on the success of this year's puffin breeding season, a species already suffering population declines."
Professor Mike Harris, a research fellow at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), one of the world's leading experts on Atlantic puffins, said: "Reports emerged just a few days ago of dead puffins washed up on the beaches of east Scotland and north-east of England.
"This is likely to be the biggest 'wreck' since 1947. It comes at an unusual time of year, when the puffins are heading back to land to breed. The likely cause is the bad weather, particularly the recent run of strong easterly winds. The birds appear to have died of starvation."
He said later this year CEH scientists would be carrying out the latest five-year census of puffins on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, one of Scotland's most important colonies and the largest in the North Sea. Numbers declined at the last count in 2008, so this wreck is almost certainly not good news for the long-term health of Scotland's puffins, Mr Harris said.
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