Seabirds nesting on the remote Farne Islands have been hit by heavy rain which killed many of their young, the National Trust has said.
Arctic terns, puffins, guillemots and shags all suffered losses as chicks including pufflings – baby puffins – were battered by nearly 5in of rain in 24 hours on June 13 on the islands off the Northumberland coast.
There was five times as much rain as fell on the islands in the whole of June last year, at a time when the baby birds were at their most vulnerable.
Ground-nesting Arctic terns were hit by exposure of their chicks to the elements, and threatened puffins saw the burrows they raise their pufflings in flooded.
It will take time to see if the rain has a significant impact on bird numbers in subsequent years but the National Trust warns climate change could be having an effect with more frequent summer storms.
READ MORE: Warming seas could put seabirds out of sync with prey - study
Gwen Potter, countryside manager for the National Trust, said: “The significant rainfall sadly caused many ground-nesting Arctic tern chicks to perish due to exposure to the elements.
“We don’t know the full impact yet but estimate that tern numbers are likely to dip by up to 35% this year.
“We also know that 300 pufflings perished on one of the islands. Puffins are ground-nesting birds and unfortunately their burrows flooded.
“We’re continuing to monitor the wildlife on the islands closely.
“Our rangers work throughout the year to protect these special seabirds, including providing a 24-hour watch during nesting season.”
READ MORE: Scotland's seabird population at risk from plastic pollution
Trust staff were among thousands of people who descended on Westminster to lobby their MPs to pass ambitious new laws for wildlife and people, and back efforts to halt climate change.
Ms Potter said: “The complex effects of a changing climate on nature are becoming increasingly frequent and difficult to solve.
“We are now seeing frequent summer storms washing out nests on the Farne Islands on a regular basis and a decline in the numbers of surface-feeding species such as terns.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here