Today we’ve had a lovely May Day surprise, and no it wasn’t a pinch and punch for the first of the month! It was the news that our Puffin pair that we watch via #puffincam laid their egg this morning. The egg was spotted at 9.41 am by @pridith and can be seen below in the following picture. Around this time, each year is when most of the Puffins around the cliffs of Sumburgh will be laying their eggs. Last year for example our pair laid their egg on the 4th of May.
Puffins typically mate for life and each year return to the same burrow to try to reproduce. Like most seabirds, Puffins lay only the one egg. Once laid, they will spend roughly 5 weeks incubating it until it hatches out.
We’re now slowly counting down the days until our birds welcome their new arrival. If you spot any interesting behaviour or activity on our webcams, please let us know by tweeting with the hashtag #puffincam or contacting us via email. Shetland@rspb.org.uk
To view the webcams click here.
Is anyone watching puffincam at the moment - egg seems to have been left uncovered for a couple of hours now - is there a problem with parents??
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
How wonderful - thanks for letting me know & will watch with great interest & hope and pray for a successful outcome - not a repeat of last year's tragedy!