KEVIN MORGANS
MY JOURNEY
DISCOVER.
LEARN.
INSPIRE.
mlml
Several factors contribute including unsustainable fishing, marine pollution, and invasive ground predators, but the main threat arises from the change in distribution and numbers of their primary food source, sandeels, due to our warming seas. The puffins’ fate and sandeels are entwined; if we lose the sandeels we run the risk of losing our puffins.
Across Europe puffin numbers have been declining, mainly because rising sea temperatures reduce the numbers of plankton, the main food source of sandeels which, in turn, are the puffin’s primary food. Reduced plankton has a monumental impact on the food chain, and some birds have been forced to abandon their regular feeding grounds in the North Sea, instead journeying far into the Atlantic in search of food. These travails leave parent birds exhausted, and pufflings without food for extended periods, greatly increasing mortality rates.
MY JOURNEY..
Wildlife has always been a massive part of my life, from these encounters playing in rockpools to even as a small child dreaming of one day growing up to work as a zookeeper. Later in life, my friends would be out drinking and going to parties. I was usually the odd one out, preferring to be in the garden watching frogs than inside partying. I'm often the slightly odd one in any room, usually choosing the solitude of nature over social gatherings. I've often felt lost in life, directionless, as if something was missing, but this changed when I first picked up a camera (well, a small point-and-shoot one) on a family holiday travelling across Canada with my brother shortly before turning 30. I had a purpose; the camera not only allowed me to share my passion for wildlife but also capture the beauty it beholds.
Shortly after first picking up a camera, I was lucky to visit the wonderful Skomer Island, which proved to be the start of my journey photographing seabirds. This is where my passion for working with the Atlantic puffin began. Puffins are unmistakable birds, with brightly coloured bills and a comical waddle. These traits have caused them to be known as "sea parrots" or "clowns of the sea". It's impossible not to fall in love with these charismatic seabirds, who never fail to put a smile on the face of whoever sets eyes on them.
These early experiences inspired me to follow my dream as a wildlife photographer, which I’ve now been doing professionally for a decade. In 2021 I was awarded Bird Photographer of the Year for my work with puffins and had my highly acclaimed book Puffins: Life on the Atlantic Edge published. I owe seabirds, particularly puffins, everything to my photographic career. They are a species I have now become synonymous with, having spent years sitting on windswept clifftops documenting their lives and relationship with the coast.
Over the past decade, my focus has been working with the Atlantic Puffin and telling their story, drawing nicknames such as the Puffin Man or the Prince of Puffins. it is more than just a photographic project. Protecting them and the habitat they call home is now my main drive for photography
OUR BLUE HEART: NEEDS PROTECTING
