The Current - How “Puffin Patrol” is leading pufflings out to sea

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Baby puffins, also known adorably as pufflings, are leaving their nests for the first time and heading out to sea… but artificial lights can send them off track. We’ll find out how the Puffin Patrol is steering them right.

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You essentially just go out, look on the sides of the road, ditches for a little black and white puffin. And if you got one, you got to bring it back here. Just outside of St. John's Newfoundland, around the community of Whitless Bay, people are staying up late, looking for baby puffins. The area is home to one of the biggest puffin colonies in North America. And right now, baby puffins, or puffling, are leaving their nests for the first time and heading out to sea. But the problem is that artificial light can draw them in the wrong direction, leaving them stranded on land.

And that's where the Puffin Patrol comes in. It's a draw for people everywhere throughout August. Producer Carolyn Hillier went along. Do you guys know why we do Puffin Patrol? No? No? So this is a puffling here. Some people expect a penguin-sized bird. but puffins are actually closer to the size of a pigeon.

These little guys will leave the nest and they'll use the moon in the nighttime to figure out where they need to go. And unfortunately, with all of our bright lights, we look like the moon to them. And they come on shore and once they land, they get stuck. So you're going to see one of these little guys and they're going to be kind of confused. Emily Stevens is with Sea Paws, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. We're going to put the net over top very gently. The Puffin Patrol started in 2011 when a German couple, Juergen and Elfie Shaw, bought a vacation home in Whitless Bay and noticed dead puffins on the road.

One person is going to put the puffin in the box like this. What they started grew into a collaboration with CPOS. Yergan, known as the Puffin Man, died recently. But the patrol he started now attracts locals and visitors from around the world. We're from Maryland. And is this your first time in Newfoundland? It is. How high are puffins on the list of things you want to see or experience while you're here?

They're pretty high on a list, yeah. We saw some yesterday on a hike. So we were hoping to rescue one today. But like I saw it on the video, I'm like, oh, I wonder if people from out of town can do it. And you can. So we signed up. I thought it would be really cool. You're a bird person.

I'm a bird person a little bit. It kind of sneaks up on you slowly over time. Pretty past your bedtime. So I usually asleep by now, let alone just getting out for an adventure. There's your bungee cord that should fit widthwise or lengthwise on the bin. So like when you're doing it, you just... Thanks. Bye.

Bye. Volunteers set out in their cars and on foot in search of stranded puffins. Are you with the Puffin Patrol? Stranded puffins may end up on roads, in parking lots, on cars, or trucks, And just last week, one was found sitting on a lawn chair. It's dark and abandoned and foggy, and you're, like, driving past people's houses, hoping not to put headlights in their windows. You feel like you're pretty sketchy.

You're there on the side of the road, just like with your flashlight. And it's like, yeah, I'm totally normal. I'm not like trying to break in. Just like, I'm just looking for birds. I will admit, we don't totally know what we're doing, but we're patrolling the area where this is only our second shift, so we're still getting, like, a sense of where, where, like, the best places to be are.

No puffins? No puffins, no luck. It turns out these puffins are kind of hard to find. Tonight, I don't find any, so I head back. Hello, again. What's happened? What do I hear puffins? Do you do?

There are two puffins currently. Yes, someone did find puffins. Oh, these feathers are broken out. I'm Connor, and I'm 11 years old. I'm Kieran. and I'm from Ottawa. So I didn't spot it. My mom did.

He was just on the side of the road and just on the little gravel. And then we stopped the car quickly. Then we all ran out of the car. Grabbed the nets in the box and I walked over with the net. First time I missed. But the second time I ended up snagging him.

We picked it up and put it into the box. Yeah, he's really cute. Oh, we named him Peter. Peter's very chill. He's very docile, yes. Peter isn't the only puffin found tonight. I saw something very small walking out of the parking lot. Tammy Somacendron is from New England.

Very slowly waddling into the road. And then when I pulled in, I guess my lights were more compelling, he turned around and just started walking towards me, which was objectively one of the most adorable things I've seen in my life. Yeah, I'm like tearing up when you're telling me about it. Why? What is it about puffins that we love? They're just, I mean, to be so beautiful and so endearingly clumsy,

like they should, you think that something that beautiful should be graceful, but they're relatably awkward. They're unrealistically delightful, and I wish they're communities that have birds that need help. Everywhere we're more helpful. I don't want to open it too much because he will jump out. What if he fly somewhere? Well, he will tomorrow when we throw him off the boat.

The next morning, seagulls circle the wharf, waiting for scraps from the fish being cleaned below. And the puffins, Peter and Hornsby, will soon be sent back to sea. Good morning. Yeah, we've got two puffins for you. First, Sabina Wilhelm, a seabird biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, is here to ban and measure the pufflings. It's nice to be able to get our hands on. these stranded birds because we can get a sense of how many chicks are being produced and how healthy the chicks are without disturbing them at the colonies.

A few years ago, more than 100 birds were found in just a single night. But last year, fewer than a dozen were found all season. You might think that would be good news. It wasn't. Yeah, the last few years have been really poor. And so we got very few birds. And we were able to then corroborate that by going on the islands and finding a lot of dead dead puffin chicks on the island, so basically they starved.

So far this year, more than 120 pufflings have been found during patrols. This program is a great opportunity for people to connect with nature. Finding a puffling might be what brings people out, but Sabina says what matters most is the message they take home. People from all around the world come here to try to save a puffin. But the important aspect is to promote the message that light pollution is a form of pollution, and it's something that we as humans, we like the safety of lights, but it actually has a negative impact, not just puffins,

but on all wildlife and on humans as well. So we know this program works because we've found two banded birds that were breeding on the island with chicks, and they were banded as stranded pufflings through the Puffin Patrol. Great. Okay, well, I'm going to get on board and see these puffins released. All right, well, good luck. Okay, thank you.

Good morning, everyone to talk to. How are we all doing today? The puffins are being released today in front of an audience of about 100 tourists on board O'Brien's boat tours. Captain Jerry today, give them a stop on the floor there, everybody. But first, humpback whales steal the show. Two, we've got two of us. Well, there's one, there's two. They're like mice. And a log tail to boot.

Oh, my goodness. Now, all of these birds here are here for one reason and one reason only, and that is to get lucky. This here is a breeding colony. If you've ever watched Love Island, you get the concept. But these birds are going to be here exclusively from the months of May to September here to breed. Otherwise, they will be... Gull Island is home to one of the biggest Atlantic puffin colonies in North America.

The puffins are released here, not to go back to their nests, but to get on the water near other puffins who are all on their way out to sea. where they'll spend the next few years before eventually returning to land to breed. To last I counted, 500,000 of our cute little puff and friends. After we pass Gull Island, it's time. You're very eager to get out of the box, so...

Yeah, I'd jump it around in there. I think they heard their friends and family there at the island, and they got a bit excited. Here are folks, on the count of three. Three, two, one. All right, guys, we'll give a hand for our puffins there. Absolutely. Enter our Puffin Patrol for coming out here.

This time, Peter and Hornsby are off in the right direction. Otherwise, they're off on their merry little way there to go start off their lives. What a treat, my goodness. I certainly hope you all enjoyed that, but we are making a way back in their payballs. And I know we've got to you all shortly as we get that. That was Carolyn Hillier taking us on the Puffin Patrol. You've been listening to the Cuffin Patrol. current podcast. I'm Susan Ormiston. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca slash podcasts.