Puffins are a national treasure in Iceland, and the Westland Islands, located off the southern coast of Iceland, have the world’s largest puffin colony. However, in recent years, their numbers have been dwindling due to several factors, such as climate change, overfishing, pollution, and difficulty finding food. Due to increasingly warm sea temperatures, reduced populations […]
Tag: puffins
Puffin nesting sites in western Europe could be lost by end of century
The majority of puffin nesting sites in western Europe are likely to be lost by the end of the century due to climate breakdown, a report has warned. Other seabirds will also be affected unless urgent action to limit global heating is taken, with razorbills and arctic terns forecast to lose 80% and 87% of […]
The Effects of Climate Change on Sea Turtles
On December 12, 2015, over 90 countries adopted an international agreement called “the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.” This agreement required all signing countries to make significant commitments to resolving climate change. Participants were intended to re-evaluate their pledges in the year 2020 and then strengthen their emissions reductions by 2030. The goal of this […]
After a Climate Disaster Last Year, Maine’s Seabirds Get a Reprieve
This year, twice as many seabird chicks survived the summer and fledged from their nests along the coast of Maine compared to last year. This exciting success rate is much closer to what’s considered normal for Maine’s seabird colonies, following a steep decline last year as climate change dealt a blow to nesting birds like […]
Bird species are in decline everywhere – but in Ireland it’s worse
Some 63 per cent of Irish bird species are in “serious trouble” compared to almost 50 per cent globally, according to Birdwatch Ireland and RSPB Northern Ireland. Yet there was no funding in yesterday’s 2023 Budget for nature preservation in a move branded as “shameful”. State of the birds The comments followed the release of […]
Dead in their nests or washed ashore: why thousands of seabirds are dying en masse
Twenty years ago, David Grémillet, a seabird ecologist, watched in dismay as a heatwave hit a breeding colony of Cape gannets in Lambert’s Bay, South Africa, causing dozens of birds to keel over. An unseasonably hot wind sent temperatures to 40C (104F), too intense even for the heat-adapted birds. While guarding their nests, they baked […]
A Visit to a Remote Maine Island Finds Puffins and Terns Are Having a Good Year Despite Climate Change
The title of supervisory wildlife biologist for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service does little justice to Linda Welch (pictured above). In practice, she is the housing and unusual development secretary for seabirds on Maine’s Petit Manan Island. This was clear as she led me to nesting areas there for Atlantic puffins. Over the […]
The breeding of rainbow-hued bee-eaters along the Norfolk coast shows the climate emergency has reached Britain
Conservationists claim that the breeding of rainbow-hued bee-eaters along the Norfolk coast this summer and the rare sighting of three black-winged stilt fledglings in Yorkshire are “unmissable signs” that the environment and climate emergency has reached Britain. Following the discovery of seven European bee-eaters near Cromer by a local birder, birdwatchers are swarming to north-east […]