Why was an injured puffin wandering the Outer Banks woods? NC rescuers have an idea
A puffin was found far from home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks over the weekend, and rescuers are particularly puzzled by the seabird’s landing place: the woods.
The Atlantic puffin was found Sunday night in Buxton, said Lou Browning, president and founder of Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation.
It had a head injury, which it could have sustained from getting hit by a peregrine falcon, according to the rescue group.
But it’s doing well and is eating and alert, Browning told McClatchy News.
“It’s very active and eating up a storm now so I’m trying to put some weight on it and get it beefed up as quickly as possible to get it back offshore,” he said.
Puffins, which have captivated American pop culture with plush toys and merchandise, are typically about 10 inches tall, according to the National Audubon Society. But the one on the Outer Banks is a petite puffin, only standing about 6 inches, according to Browning.
The puffin is young and doesn’t have a breeding color pattern, Browning said. When Atlantic puffins are breeding, their beaks have bright orange tips and a “blue-gray part trimmed in yellow,” the Audubon Society says.
In North America, Atlantic puffins make themselves at home from the eastern shore of Canada to the northeastern United States, according to the National Audubon Society. Most live in Iceland.
It’s not “anything extraordinary” for a puffin to make its way as far south as the Tar Heel state, but it has a strong risk of being eaten by predators or getting injured along the way, Browning said.
Adding to the mystery is that this adventurous puffin wasn’t found near the beach. Browning said he doesn’t think the bird washed ashore and walked to the woods.
“They can’t walk very well anyway,” and have “very short legs” he said, adding that the puffin was likely flying over land, hit a falcon and fell into the woods.
The bird needs to be released quickly, Browning said, because every day it isn’t flying it’s “losing conditioning.”
He said a rescuer’s hope in these situations is to take the bird offshore and find more of the same species in “favorable conditions” and release it.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Why was an injured puffin wandering the Outer Banks woods? NC rescuers have an idea."
