CELPIP Reading Part 3 Practice Test: Atlantic Puffins of Witless Bay

Paragraph A

With its black back, white chest and large, brightly striped bill, the Atlantic puffin is one of the most recognizable seabirds in the North Atlantic, and its comical appearance has earned it the nickname “clown of the sea.” It is also the official bird of Newfoundland and Labrador. Many visitors are surprised to learn that the bird’s famous orange-and-yellow bill is a seasonal feature: once the breeding season ends, its colourful outer layers are shed, leaving a smaller, duller bill for the winter. Puffins spend most of their lives far out on the open ocean, often well out of sight of land, coming ashore only to raise their young in spring and summer.

Paragraph B

When they do come ashore, a great many of them gather at the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, a group of small islands off the eastern coast of the Avalon Peninsula, south of St. John’s. The reserve is home to North America’s largest Atlantic puffin colony, and each summer the islands are crowded with hundreds of thousands of nesting seabirds of several different species. Because the colonies are easily disturbed, the islands themselves are protected, and landing on them requires a permit. Most visitors therefore see the birds from tour boats that leave from nearby coastal communities, often with whales feeding in the same waters. These trips run mainly during the summer months, when the birds are busiest.

Paragraph C

Puffins usually breed with the same partner year after year, and many pairs return to the very same nest each spring. Rather than building nests on bare cliffs, they dig burrows into the soft soil of grassy slopes, using their bills to loosen the earth and their feet to push it out. The female lays a single egg, and both parents take turns keeping it warm and, after it hatches, flying back and forth with food for the chick, which is known as a puffling. Puffins are also strong swimmers, using their wings to “fly” underwater in pursuit of prey. A parent can carry several small fish at once, held crosswise in its bill, and capelin, a small silvery fish, makes up much of the diet around Newfoundland.

Paragraph D

In late summer, the young birds leave their burrows, usually under cover of darkness, and head for the sea. Some, however, are drawn toward the lights of nearby towns and end up stranded on roads and in parking lots. In the communities around Witless Bay, volunteers patrol the streets at night during this period, gently gathering the lost pufflings and releasing them at the shore. Scientists also keep a close watch on the colony. Because capelin arrive near the coast at different times depending on ocean conditions, researchers are concerned that warming waters could leave parents without enough food at the very moment their chicks need it most.