A record number of puffins has been counted on an internationally important breeding site on an island off Wales, for the second year running.

The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW) said 52,019 Puffins recorded in this year’s count, beating the previous record of 43,626 set in 2025.

Skomer island is a National Nature Reserve located less than a mile off the coast of Pembrokeshire in southwest Wales, it’s isolated location means it is better protected from people and predators. 

Puffins are globally one of the fastest declining families of birds, so their record numbers were welcomed by the wildlife charity. 

Seabirds are facing a myriad of threats on land and at sea, from pollution and invasive predators to Avian Influenza and offshore renewable development. 

Earlier this year, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) issued an urgent call for coordinated, nationwide action to safeguard seabirds, following reports of hundreds of dead Puffins, Guillemots and other marine species washing ashore.

Leighton Newman, Skomer Island Warden for WTSWW, said: “After the tragic number of seabirds washing up on beaches across southern Europe earlier this year… it’s a very pleasant surprise to see the puffin population thriving.”

Monitoring bird species and numbers is a critical conservation strategy, offering long-term insight into the health of population numbers.

Logistically though, these counts can be challenging. The over 50,000 birds are each counted by a team of six wardens and volunteers called the Skomer team. In a carefully selected window – between when birds return to the island, and when they are underground settled on their eggs – the team set out with binoculars and a notepad to count every single Puffin on the land, in the sky and at sea.

They use the same method that the wardens used in the 1980s – meaning they can compare over 40 years of Puffin population data.

“Puffin numbers are declining at many sites around the UK, but Skomer bucks the trend – and it’s thanks to long-term monitoring work that we know this.” Newman added.

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