This morning I popped out to the nearby Dancing Ledge area to look for the local Puffins. A handful of this lovely species have returned, but the odds of them successfully breeding are low. The National Trust have been monitoring the last few individuals for a couple of years now with cameras and they haven't seen strong evidence of chicks, beyond the odd Puffin sighting of them carrying food. If these last pairs were breeding, then they would regularly be seen carrying food back to their nest site. There hasn't been evidence of predation from the cameras and I wonder if the problem is these individuals are just too old to be able to breed successfully. Unfortunately, I didn't see any Puffins. But I did see a dozen Early Spider Orchids as I walked to the coast. They were stunted, as they haven't had the chance to grow their full stalk. This year is the first time I've seen them in March, with my first Early Spider Orchid five days earlier. It's another sign that spring is here.
Another sign of Spring was seeing two lone Swallows arriving while I was looking for the Puffins. In a couple of weeks, my local Swallows will be back on territory for the Summer. They normally arrive just before mid-April.
