The story of the historic rediscovery of Bermuda’s national bird in 1951 offered students a lesson this week on caring for Bermuda’s environment.

A group from the Whitney Institute and Somersfield Academy met at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo on Tuesday to hear the story of the cahow from David Wingate, a former government conservation officer.

Dr Wingate was just 15 in January 1951 when he took part in the team that found the endemic Bermuda petrel, which had been thought extinct for centuries, nesting on islands in Castle Harbour.

The commemoration was organised by the Bermuda Climate Action Network, an environmental group that has pledged to plant 2,020 trees on the island this year as part of its Vision 2020 campaign.

Dr Wingate, who has planted an estimated 1,400 native and endemic trees over his lifetime, joined the group afterwards to plant a Bermuda cedar by the Aquarium’s parking area.