Farne Island puffin numbers hit by summer floods

The number of newly fledged puffins has fallen, according to the National Trust

Puffin numbers on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast may be hit by summer flooding, wildlife experts have warned.

Flooded burrows have been blamed for a serious drop in the number of fledged puffin chicks this year.

Each year National Trust rangers monitor 100 burrows with eggs and last year found 92 birds had fledged - seen as a remarkable success.

But this year there were only about 50 successfully fledged chicks.

The islands provide the home to one of Britain's most important seabird colonies.

'Heavy rain'

Ed Tooth, a ranger who lives on the islands, said: "We have had some freak downpours and storms.

"The drainage on some of the islands means that when you get really heavy rain, it floods the burrows out, and productivity has been quite low."

Every five years the trust carries out a larger audit, the last being in 2013, when puffin numbers on the islands were strong, at just under 40,000 pairs.

That was an increase on the 2008 figure when a stormy summer hit numbers hard from a high of more than 50,000 down to 36,000 breeding pairs.

August marks the 90th anniversary of the Farne Islands - once home to St Cuthbert - coming under the control of the National Trust.

Since then they have become what the trust describes as a "jewel in its wildlife crown", with more than 23 types of breeding seabirds living on there, as well as one of the largest colonies of Atlantic grey seals in the UK.