Baby puffin spotted on Dorset coast for first time in 30 years

Dr Richard Caldow, an expert in seabirds, has estimated the puffling to be 38 to 40 days old.

Puffins typically start to grow feathers and learn to fly (a process known as fledging) between 38 and 44 days after hatching.

He said: “Seeing the puffling was a great thrill, the first puffling that’s been recorded in Purbeck for a long time.

“It tells us that Purbeck puffins can still lay fertile eggs, hatch them and, at least in some years, find enough food to rear a chick and escape the attention of predators.”