{"id":373049,"date":"2025-12-28T12:42:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T12:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373049\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T12:42:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T12:42:05","slug":"saving-the-petrel-volunteers-keep-moving-with-patrol-to-save-stranded-sea-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373049\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving the petrel: Volunteers keep moving with patrol to save stranded sea birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Picking up petrels has become another part of fall for some folks along the eastern coast of Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

Leach\u2019s storm petrels, found in abundance off Newfoundland’s shores, can find themselves stranded on land after becoming confused by the lights coming from buildings, fishing boats and oil platforms. It\u2019s especially difficult for fledglings taking their first flight, typically from September to mid-November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But local petrel patrols are helping get them back in the air again.<\/p>\n

Karen Gosse is a volunteer with Rock Wildlife Rescue, one of the groups \u2014 alongside individual volunteers \u2014 committed to the cause. CPAWS-NL and Canadian Wildlife Services are also on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a 24-hour petrel drop off unit. So if they\u2019re found around the city or brought in by anybody from either one of those agencies \u2014 any time of day or night \u2014 they can be dropped off to us at the rescue and we will assess them, get them ready,\u201d Gosse told CBC News.<\/p>\n

The birds are then transported to other volunteers who bring them back to a beach in Witless Bay each night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year saw a low number of birds collected and released. Gosse said that\u2019s a good thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, I remember standing here with another one of our volunteers and they were falling from the sky, circling, exhausted, falling, breaking their necks on the pavement. And it was absolutely awful,” Gosse said. “There was nothing we could do except pick them up. So we\u2019ll take a not busy night any day.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

For mother and daughter volunteer duo Jennifer and Chloe Lahey, it can mean some late nights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go out at about 11 p.m. and we get home around 2 a.m.,\u201d Jennifer Lahey said.<\/p>\n

They said they usually try to make the journey to release the stranded birds on the same night they’re found. Though it\u2019s a lot of work, the pair say it\u2019s a labour of love.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my favourite thing to watch them fly off and just know that you saved their lives, and watch them get another chance,\u201d said Chloe Lahey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Charismatic animals’<\/p>\n

Wildlife biologist Taylor Brown says there\u2019s a lot to love about the petrels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re lovely, small, quirky birds. They make crazy sounds,\u201d Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re coming to and from the island at night. They recognize each other by smell. There’s so many different things. They nest in burrows. They mate for life.”<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just adults who are committed to saving the little birds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SmallVolunteers collect stranded Leach’s storm petrels and release them. (CBC\/Todd O’Brien)<\/p>\n

Rebecca Vincent is a teacher at Gill Memorial Academy in Musgrave Harbour. She spoke to CBC News this year about how her students are lending a hand.<\/p>\n

After seeing the birds turn up around the school \u2014 just a few minutes walk from the beach \u2014 they wanted to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The kindergarten to Grade 3 students Vincent teaches were all in. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey think they\u2019re saving the world is what we\u2019re doing,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very involved in it, and even the Grade 4s and 5s that are moved upstairs ask each day, ‘how many birds, miss?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Numbers in decline\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bill Montevecchi has been studying the birds for decades. He spoke with CBC News in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When he surveyed Baccalieu Island in the 1980s, he recorded over six million birds. But those numbers are declining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ManBill Montevecchi has been studying Leach’s Storm Petrels for decades. (CBC\/Paul Pickett)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what happened over those 30 years? Well, over those 30 years we lit up the Grand Banks with oil platforms and flares,\u201d Montevecchi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And though the numbers may still sound high in the millions, it doesn\u2019t mean the birds aren\u2019t at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThings that are often really abundant are still highly vulnerable to extinction,\u201d Montevecchi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, you can look at the commercial extinction of cod.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download our\u00a0free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our\u00a0daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click\u00a0here to visit our landing page<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-373049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}