The petrel patrol

Every year, tens to hundreds of seabirds fall out of the sky across Auckland city. Disoriented by the bright lights, Cook's petrels crash-land and collide with buildings - but a dedicated group of volunteers hit the pavement to rescue them. Join us on 'Petrel Patrol' and go behind the scenes at a bird hospital, where squid smoothies and bath time help the seabirds find their wings again.

The concrete jungle of inner-city Auckland is no place for a seabird.

But that's where many Cook's petrels, or tītī, end up every year: crash-landed in urban areas after becoming discombobulated by the bright city lights.

Luckily, the Petrel Patrol is on hand to rescue lost seabirds.

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Ariel Heswall, a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland, is the brains behind the volunteer Petrel Patrol, which hits the pavement on early mornings across a few weeks in Autumn to search for grounded seabirds. She was inspired to start the patrol after seeing hundreds of Cook's petrels come into the Birdcare Aotearoa hospital as patients.

Cook's petrels - or "Cookies", as Ariel affectionately calls them - once lived on mountaintops across Aotearoa. But now, they are restricted to three offshore islands. One population lives in the south, on Whenua Hou Codfish Island off the coast of Rakiura. The other lives in the Hauraki Gulf, with most breeding on Hauturu-o-toi Little Barrier Island and a few more on Aotea Great Barrier Island.

The Hauraki Gulf Cook's petrels forage for food in the Tasman Sea, which means they have to fly across the Auckland isthmus to find a feed. With city lights creating disorienting light pollution, this journey is perilous - especially for young fledglings making the trip for the first time. It's these inexperienced birds that often fall victim to the lights - or even collide with buildings - and end up at Birdcare Aotearoa.

Join us as we tag along on a Petrel Patrol, and then visit Birdcare Aotearoa to meet recovering Cook's petrels and learn about what it takes to rehabilitate seabirds from wildlife rehabilitation expert Lynn Miller. Plus, Ariel explains her research into why light pollution affects seabirds like Cook's petrels.

To learn more:

Ariel has started the Protect our Petrels website which includes info on how to safely rescue a grounded seabird.

We have lots of seabird-themed episodes in our back-catalogue, including this one from 2022 on the Karioi Project helping ōi grey-faced petrels near Whāingaroa Raglan, and this interview with seabird scientist Edin Whitehead on seabirds of northern New Zealand.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details