During the last 100 years breeding numbers of Atlantic Puffins Fratercula arctica (hereafter ‘Puffins’) in the Channel Islands and Brittany, the most southern colonies in the eastern Atlantic, have declined dramatically and in 2000 totalled less than 600 pairs (Harris & Wanless 2004). Most colonies now have trivial numbers and that on Burhou, Alderney, Channel Islands is one of only two remaining probably viable breeding populations south of the English Channel, and is therefore regionally of considerable conservation importance.

Thanks are due to the Burhou Warden, John Dupont for arranging the visits to Burhou, to Pierre Dupont for transport, to Mike Roger for permission to use the photographs, to Mike Harris for help with the manuscript and for identifying the fish in the photographs, to Louise Soanes for Puffin counts, and to Mark Atkinson, Alderney County Bird Recorder, for other assistance.

Coysh, V. 1985. Channel Islets. The Guernsey Press, Guernsey.

Danchin E. & Cordonnier P. 1980. ‘Rapport d’Activité, Aurigny (Alderney) Iles Anglonormandes.’ Unpublished Report, C.R.B.P.O., Museum de Paris.

Harris, M.P. 1984. The Puffin. Poyser, Calton.

Harris, M. P. & Hislop, J. R. G. 1978. The food of young Puffins Fratercula arctica. Journal of Zoology, London. 185: 213-236. [Crossref]

Harris, M. P. & Wanless, S. 2004. The Atlantic Puffin Fratercula arctica. In: Mitchell, I. P., Newton, S. F., Ratcliffe, N. and Dunn, T. E. (eds.) Seabird populations in Britain and Ireland: 392-406. Poyser, London.

Hill, M. G. 1989. The Spread of Bracken Pteridium aquilinium in Burhou Island, Alderney from 1973 to 1978. Report and Transactions of La Société Guernesiaise. 22: 628-632.

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Sanders, J. G. 2005. Alderney’s Breeding Seabirds. Report and Transactions of La Société Guernesiaise. 25: 702-728.

Sanders, J. G. 2007. The Birds of Alderney. The Press at St. Anne, Alderney.