The Puffin

Description

With its colourful beak and fast, whirring flight, the Atlantic Puffin is the most recognisable and popular of all North Atlantic seabirds. Puffins spend most of the year at sea, but for a few months of the year the come to shore, nesting in burrows on steep cliffs or on inaccessible islands. Awe-inspiring numbers of these birds can sometimes be seen bobbing on the sea or flying in vast wheels over the colony, bringing fish in their beaks back to the chicks. However, the species has declined sharply over the last decade; this is due to a collapse in fish stocks caused by overfishing and global warming, combined with an exponential increase in Pipefish (which can kill the chicks). The Puffin is a revised and expanded second edition of Poyser’s 1984 title on these endearing birds, widely considered to be a Poyser classic. It includes sections on their affinities, nesting and incubation, movements, foraging ecology, survivorship, predation, and research methodology; particular attention is paid to conservation, with the species considered an important ‘indicator’ of the health of our coasts. Cover Contents List of Figures List of Tables Introduction and acknowledgements 1. Puffins and auks 2. Studies of Puffins 3. Appearance, development and moult 4. Distribution and status in Britain, Ireland and France 5. Distribution and status in Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, Norway, Russia, Svalbard, Greenland and the western Atlantic 6. Colony attendance and incubation 7. Chick rearing and breeding success 8. Puffin behaviour (by Kenny Taylor) 9. Food and feeding 10. Predators, pirates, parasites and competitors 11. Survival of Puffins and the Isle of May population 12. Puffins away from the colony 13. Puffins and people 14. Other threats to Puffins 15. Overview and the future Appendix 1. Measurements of Puffins throughout the range Appendix 2. Sources of counts and estimates and general background information used in Chapters 4 and 5 Appendix 3. First and last dates of Puffins in Grampian, on the Isle of May and Fair Isle Appendix 4. Dates when Puffins were first seen on the sea and ashore and were last recorded ashore or carrying fish on Skokholm Appendix 5. Timing of breeding of Puffins on the Isle of May and the Farne Islands Appendix 6. Measurements of eggs of Puffins throughout the range Appendix 7. Annual peak and fledging weights, age at fledging and growth rates of Puffins on the Isle of May, 1974–2010 Appendix 8. Breeding success of Puffins on the Isle of May, 1973–2010 Appendix 9. Numbers of fish brought to young Puffins on the Isle of May, 1973–2010 Appendix 10. Diet by weight of young Puffins on the Isle of May, 1973–2010 Appendix 11. Lengths of sandeels, rockling and other Gadidae dropped by Puffins on the Isle of May, 1973–2010 Appendix 12. Lengths of sprat, herring and unidentified Clupeidae dropped by Puffins on the Isle of May, 1973–2010 Appendix 13. Annual mean weights of loads of fish, number of fish per load and frequency of feeds brought to young Puffins on the Isle of May, 1973–2010 Appendix 14. Scientific names of birds, mammals and amphibians mentioned in the text References Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U W Z Colour Picture Section