Lost puffin found at Winchester hospital sex clinic Published duration 2 December 2011

image caption The puffin was found at the bottom of a flight of steps

A puffin has been found at a sexual health clinic in Hampshire after it was thought to have been blown off course from its winter migration.

The male juvenile bird was found cowering in a basement building at Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital on Wednesday.

RSPCA staff picked up the puffin and transferred the bird to the Hart Wildlife Rescue centre near Alton.

Staff described the puffin as being "very hungry and exhausted".

'More feisty'

Hart Wildlife Rescue's Charmian Greenland-Jones said they were "full to bursting point" but managed to find room for the seabird. It is the first time they have looked after a puffin.

"We've been feeding him on fish we had in for a herring gull that was being treated here recently and he is now much more feisty."

She said it was thought he had become separated from other puffins flying south from coastal areas of northern Britain to the Bay of Biscay.

It is hoped the creature will be transferred to the South Devon Seabird Trust in Teignmouth.

Jean Bradford from the trust said: "If all is well he may be released next month, if the weather is calm, or kept until March when he can rejoin his fellow puffins on their way back to the breeding colonies."