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Off the coast of Northeast England you'll find the Farne Islands, a group of 15-20 islands (depending on the tide), that are home to a huge population of sea birds, who come there for 'social gatherings' and mating. On last count, the islands hosted more than 23 different species of seasbirds, as well as a thriving colony of grey seals, that come there during autumn to have their pups.
To keep an eye on the numbers, the National Trust carries out a census of the islands' population twice each decade, and this year they found almost 40,000 mating pairs of puffins on the islands, a 8 percent rise from 2008, which is great to see!
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| Trained rangers pull a puffin out of its little burrow on Farne Islands, located off the coast of Northern England. |
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| Another ranger measures a tiny Artic Tern chick. |
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| A cute artic tern performs a dive bomb on an unsuspecting ranger. |
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| Feeding the chick. |
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| Swooping down from the sky. |
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| Catching some tasty sand eels for breakfast. |
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| A puffin shakes off the rain. |
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| After making sure they have their special identification rings, rangers release some shag chicks. |
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| A shag protecting its youngling. |
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| Catching another chick to put an ID ring on. |
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| Gray seals playing in the murky underwater. |
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| A grey bull seal comfortable in its water pool. |
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| And now fighting for territory and of control of the females. |
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| A grey seal mother nuzzling her newborn. |
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| A ranger sprays a little seal baby with special pigment so it can be counted. This is the best way to estimate the real numbers of their population. |
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| Seals lie on Brownsman Island. |
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| The beautiful scenic view of the inner part of the Farne Islands - Inner Farne, as seen off the northern coast of England. |
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| A Guillemot swims underwater by the Islands. |
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