Post-fledging movements of Atlantic Puffins from Skomer Island

Abstract

The movements of seabirds during the immature period generally remain poorly understood, primarily due to the challenges involved with tracking birds that do not regularly return to a nest. This knowledge gap prevents us from gaining a full understanding of the areas used by seabird populations. Here, we attempted to track the post-fledging movements of Atlantic Puffins Fratercula arctica from Skomer Island (Wales, UK), by deploying geolocators on chicks ready to leave the nest. Despite our very small return rate (just two loggers out of 54, recording 485 and 196 days of data after fledging, respectively), our results provide a first glimpse into the distribution and scale of movements of young Puffins after fledging. The young Puffins undertook movements comparable in scale to those of post-breeding adults, and there were considerable differences between the two individuals. New initiatives to track juvenile seabirds in much larger numbers will hopefully soon provide more insight into seabird post-fledging movements.