North Berwick, Craigleith island Scotland

Craigleith is the closest of the four islands, just one kilometre from the Scottish Seabird Centre. The island is home to a rich variety of seabirds and marine life and it is a particular hotspot for puffins. Craigleith was home to about 10,000 pairs of breeding puffins in the 1990s. However, numbers crashed dramatically due the invasion of the non-native plant tree mallow, which chokes puffin burrows and prevents the birds from nesting and rearing their chicks, known as pufflings. To tackle this problem the Scottish Seabird Centre set up a project called SOS Puffin in 2007, whereby work parties of volunteers make regular trips to Craigleith and the neighbouring islands of Fidra and the Lamb to cut down tree mallow. To date, hundreds of work parties have made regular trips to the islands to keep the tree mallow under control. This has largely been achieved, and the amount of mallow which appears every year has slowly declined. The northern half of the Island is now mostly free of tree mallow, having been replaced with grasses. This has allowed puffins to breed again and for their numbers to recover. SOS Puffin is supported and run entirely by volunteers. To find out more click here.