Nearly 100,000 puffins have returned to their small island home to breed after eight months at sea - marking the sign of spring.
The birds arrived on the Isle of May, Fife early yesterday after leaving last August to spend the winter months feeding and raising their young in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
The Isle of May nature reserve, five miles off the Fife coast, is home to the birds for around four months each year, where more than 40,000 pairs of puffins - which partner for life - revisit their nests to breed.
It is managed by Scottish Natural Heritage, and nature reserve manager David Steel described the return as 'a big occasion'.
David said: "They all came in this morning, around 7am.
"I could tell yesterday they were considering it.
"They were out at sea and the conditions were right with just a little breeze.
"It's the first time they've touched land in eight months.
"They've been out in the North Sea and the Atlantic.
"It must be quite surreal for them.
"They've touched land and they pair for life.
"They'll meet up with their partner and use the same nest hole, what's called a puffin burrow, and they'll do a bit of spring cleaning if bits of the nest have collapsed."
As the puffins prepare to commence their breeding season, David expects the island's first eggs to appear in around three weeks' time.
David, who has worked with puffins for 20 years, believes the birds returning is the perfect sign for the start of spring.
He said: "They'll start the breeding season.
"We're expecting the first eggs around 14th or 15th April.
"It's a big occasion having them back.
"People talk about the first swallow being the sign of summer but for me when the first puffins land that spring's begun - this is their big day.
"A good majority if not all of them are back, it's wonderful.
"They'll go back to the same hole till they die, that could be 30 years or more - it's quite a unique lifestyle."
