England's last mainland puffin colony had shrunk to just six birds, and conservationists were bracing for the worst. Then, tucked deep in a cliffside crevice at Dancing Ledge in Dorset, something almost nobody had seen in three decades happened: a puffling was born.
The National Trust spent 15 weeks installing motion-sensor cameras in the cliffs to figure out why the colony's three remaining breeding pairs kept losing their chicks and eggs — predators like rats were suspected. Volunteers logged around 150 hours watching the ledges before spotting adult puffins carrying fish into the nest, and eventually, the chick itself. "Seeing the puffling was a great thrill," said Dr. Richard Caldow, who leads the project. "One puffling alone won't save this colony, but one is a whole lot better news than none."
The chick is expected to leave its cliffside nest soon, slipping out under cover of darkness to spend the next few years alone at sea — with a real chance, if it survives, of returning to Dorset to start the whole story over again.
Source: Good News Network
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