November 11th, 2015

The egg laying of our Yellow-eyed penguins all happened over two and a half weeks, so the hatching is in full swing right now. Here is a picture of our oldest chicks (also featured 5 Nov). It is alive! Yeah! Why is this a special cause for celebration?
It looks like that it might shape up to be a year with lots of Diptheria - an infectious disease that can kill the chicks. We have treated both chicks in this nest since they were just about big enough to be handled and they are now well and growing fabulously. In addition we are right now treating 7 other nests and are checking all chicks for disease every other day after they reach 5 days. If they show the symptoms they get daily dose of meds for 5 days and that should fix the problem.
What is amazing is that the parents seem to get it that we are trying to help and tend to be less aggressive and more compliant than otherwise when the chicks are removed from the nest. Interesting isn't it - and don't let anyone call them bird-brains. They have it where it counts!!