We are still searching our colonies of Yellow-eyed penguins and checking the nests. We are not expecting to find new nests unless they are in weird places (hope springs eternal). Now we are trying to work out who is missing by identifying the penguins still alive. This is not easy because they tend to run away when you approach them unless they are sitting on a nest. We will persevere and hope to find them in a box so we can read their transponder number. So far we have found only non-breeding males - which is to be expected. One of our colonies had 8 sitting round during the day. Their hope springs eternal as well. Maybe next year.....
Not sure who these two in the picture are. They came home after fishing and sat in the evening sun. In the background you can see some of our 17 "girls" - our mobile mowing machines courtesy of our neighbour farmer! We love them and thank you!

It is the middle of October and the Yellow-eyed penguins will have finished laying eggs. We have been busy finding nests and identifying the adults. It is not looking good. We have lost many penguins through the winter and the ones that returned to breed had to find new mates. There has been much rearranging of pairing and a number of males (sex bias in the population - never enough females) will be sitting out the season either because their mate has not returned or their mate ran off with the neighbour who has lost their mate. We are heart-broken because we feel we have done everything in our power to look after these birds in our patch, and despite our best efforts so many have perished. (and no, they haven't emigrated to another colony - this is extremely rare and cannot account for what we have found this season). This species is in deep trouble and all resources have to be poured into looking after them or we loose Yellow-eyed penguins from South Island, New Zealand.

List of things to do when you are a Yellow-eyed penguin at the start of breeding season: "gone fishing - tick; got mate - tick; got eggs - tick; now must rush home and sit on them". This guy was all business coming across the beach and heading to his nest. His mate will be pleased to see him and it will be her turn to go fishing tomorrow after they spend the night together at the nest with him on the eggs. He will be keen to get started on the incubation.

If you look hard enough you can see that he has a black feather more or less in the middle of his chest - it is an individual marking that stays year after year. These black feather are rarer in Yellow-eyeds than in other species and can be used for id if they should loose their chip!