Hameray Classroom Literacy Blog

Critter Corner: It's Puffin Time!

It's the time of year when baby puffins start leaving the nest! Puffins living in Canada get a little help from the Puffin and Petrel Patrol.

"The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s Newfoundland and Labrador (CPAWS-NL) chapter launched the annual Puffin and Petrel Patrol Tuesday night,"   reports Andrew Robinson in the   St. John's Telegram .   St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, where the puffins live.

“One of the main reasons we’re finding young, juvenile puffins on our highways, roads, and yards is because they’re attracted to artificial light,” said Suzanne Dooley, co-executive director for CPAWS-NL.

“They use the moon for guidance, so on nights (where) the moon isn’t clear, when they leave their boroughs at night ... they end up coming towards street lights, business lights, (and) homeowner lights on the land.”

The Patrol searches for and rescues the baby puffins before they have a chance to come to harm on the road and releases them into a safe area of the wilderness.

Because Puffin Patrol season coincides with the beginning of the school year, it's a great chance to kick off the year by teaching children about volunteering, conservationism, and their favorite topic: animals!

You can introduce them to the puffin through our   Zoozoo Animal World   book   Puffin , which is part of the Arctic Habitat Set. Click the image below to learn more about the book.

Photo credit of puffin (right): CPS Photos