
A stranded puffin has been rescued after being found more than a hundred miles away from its natural coastal habitat.
The seabird was blown off course before landing in a garden in landlocked Hereford, England, where it was found by a concerned homeowner who took it to a veterinary office.
It is believed the lost puffin was trying to make its way back to the cliffs of Skomer or its nearby Island in Pembrokeshire, Walesโ110 miles (177km) away.
Vets for Pets Hereford reported on Facebook Wednesday that the exhausted bird was weak and underweight, but they managed to nurture it back to health by feeding it a specialized formula designed for fish-eating birds.
โWe were surprised, to say the least,โ said Dr. Elliot Goodwin, the head surgeon. โPuffins never venture this far inland unless theyโre disoriented or have been blown off course.
โItโs likely she was returning to her nesting site in West Wales and lost her way. Although she is not injured she is very tired from her inland holiday.โ
The staff nicknamed the bird โLovely Oonaโโinspired by Puffin Rock & Friends animationโand sheโll be transported back to West Wales and released into the wild once she regains her full strength.
On that note, yesterday she started on solid food, after the office put out the call for a specific small sardine-like fish the staff couldnโt find.
โA lovely man called, and is bringing us some frozen Sprats,โ they wrote in a Facebook update. And when Oona immediately ate two of them, they updated again: โWe are over the moon.โ
โIt was a full team effort, from diagnosis to feeding and nutrition, everyone brought their expertise to the table,โ said Dr. Elliot. โEven though weโve treated many exotics beforeโincluding, lynx, meerkats and goshawksโthis was our first puffin.โ
โAs you can imagine, we get phone calls about all sorts of wildlife and sometimes people get a bit confused, so we didnโt quite believe it was going to be a puffin but, sure enough, she came in with a puffin.โ
They warned that the colorfully-billed birds usually travel in small groups, so encouraged residents to be on the lookout for other puffins that might have lost their way.

Puffins are a lot smaller than people realize, with healthy adults weighing less than a pound (14 ounces). Normally weighing 400 grams, Oona weighed just 218.
Dr. Sasha Norris, of Herefordshire Wildlife Rescue, said seabirds blown off course usually donโt make itโso Oonaโs been very lucky.
MORE BIRD GOOD NEWS:
โข Giant Mystical Eagle Thought to Be โExtinct in Mexicoโ Reappears, Marking Landmark Moment for Conservationists
โข Second-Ever Elusive Night Parrot Egg Discovered in Australia Where it Had Been โExtinctโ for 100 Years
โข Endangered Thick-Billed Parrot That Once Roamed the US Is on the Way to Recovery
Living exclusively in coastal areas, and making their home on clifftops and islands, puffins are listed in the UK as a species of high conservation concern, but there are 580,000 breeding pairs here.
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