The storm swept a tiny, penguin-like bird to Vermont. A teenager took it in

Vermont Public | By Lexi Krupp
Published December 22, 2023 at 9:56 AM EST


Emily Knaggs / Courtesy
After this dovekie was found in Westmore, Emily Knaggs with NEK Wildlife Rescue Rehabilitation took the bird in.

For a seabird swept up in a storm, exhausted from fighting against the wind and rain, a wet road can look a lot like a body of water, and a good place to rest.

That’s probably what happened Monday night in Westmore, after a deadly storm battered the northeast, with coastal winds gusting over 60 mph, and torrential rain that caused widespread flooding and power outages.

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Less than an hour later, Knaggs picked up the bird and identified it as a dovekie, also called a little auk. They’re black and white diving birds, in the same family as puffins, that weigh less than half a pound. They live on the ocean — nesting above the Arctic Circle in summer, then migrating south for the winter by swimming, typically as far down as the New England coast.

She took care of the bird at her home until early Wednesday morning, when two volunteers drove it to a wildlife rehab center on the coast of Maine, called the Center for Wildlife.

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