Book 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. Mike
Harris is one of the best-known seabird biologists in Britain today.
Formerly a warden on Skokholm Island, his research on auks and other
species has led to ecological research in places such as the Isle of
May, St Kilda and the Galapagos Islands. His successful career was
acknowledged by the award of the prestigious BOU Godman-Salvin Medal for
distinguished ornithological work in 2006.
