Puffin Lays Egg In Video As UK's Farne Islands Bird-Counting Census Begins

The great puffin census has begun!

Every five years, the U.K.'s National Trust conducts a count of every breeding pair of the quirky birds on the Farne Islands, and the organization recently released an incredible video of one puffin laying an egg in her underground burrow.

The 10 National Trust rangers living in the region will go around and stick their arms into 60,000 puffin homes to look for breeding pairs over the next few months, the Guardian reports.

There were nearly 37,000 breeding pairs in 2008, according to a National Trust press release, but conservationists are worried that a recent rash of extreme weather has hurt the population. 3,500 birds washed up dead after an ice storm in March, the largest puffin "wreck" in 66 years.

David Attenborough has said the islands during breeding season are his favorite place to see wildlife in the U.K.

(h/t the Guardian)