‘A real dark situation to be in’: thousands of starving seabirds stranded in biggest ‘wreck’ in a decade

Puffins, guillemots, razorbills and terns are washing up on shores across Europe, after a string of storms affected their ability to find food The two puffins washed up among seaweed and bits of plastic on a beach in Newquay, Cornwall, on a damp February morning. Normally, these much-loved seabirds pull in crowds of tourists eager to see their courtship rituals, but these were rolling in the surf, dead. Most people walking past probably missed them. Their breast bones were sticking out, they ...

By Phoebe Weston