Volunteers and marine ornithologist Richard Caldow photographed a puffling on the Purbeck coast near Swanage on 7 July, the first recorded on the Dorset mainland in about 30 years. The site is the last known regular mainland nesting colony for puffins in southern England; numbers fell from about 80 pairs in the 1950s to just three pairs before recent monitoring. Thirteen volunteers spent 15 weeks watching the cliff ledges; six adult puffins were recorded in April and observers saw adults carrying fish into at least two separate nest sites. Caldow timed a chartered boat from 4pm to 8pm on 7 July and says the chick, about 38 days old based on feeding between 29 May and 5 July, popped out shortly after 7pm and likely fledged that night. Caldow cautioned that a single chick will not save the colony but said the sighting proves Purbeck puffins can still lay fertile eggs, hatch them, and in some years rear a chick to fledging. The National Trust and volunteers have deployed motion-sensor cameras in fissures and will review the images after the breeding season as they investigate causes of past breeding failures, including rats, peregrine falcons, and climate change. Caldow noted the fledgling will be independent at sea, will not return for at least two years, and would not breed until about 2030 at the earliest if it does come back.
