​Hello friends and family,
It is always a pleasure to get to the end of November and to look forward to the festive season with some degree of control over events. All the surviving chicks bar one, have come back from the Wildlife Hospital and settled into their nests. The parents are doing the grunt work of feeding them each day. They are leaving early and swapping over during the day so both can feed. 

​We had a wonderful surprize on Monday when Murray found another nest at the Bluffs. This puts our total to 40. There was a penguin sitting on two infertile eggs. Hidden away inside a gorse bush, it was a pair we had not seen last season. It now has a chick and a number! Our tally is now 40 nests and 62 chicks. 

​Tuesday was weighing day here at Katiki Point. We weighed 43 chicks and were happy with their weights but not so much with their mums. The mums are scrawny already, some only 4.5kg. this is an early signal that we may need to help with chick raising.

​Our other weighing day is normally Thursday but this week we had to return the rental car. This meant 2 cars going to Dunedin, so we seized the day, and all went down for our end of November celebration. We visited the OPERA (Otago peninsula environmental restoration alliance) The weather was great and the visit worthwhile. After that we went out to lunch and then home.

​This meant weigh day was Friday. Elaine, Jan, and I were joined by Amy from Sea World Kelly Tarltons who are our sponsors. The chicks were fine but once again, thin mums. Mrs 130 was only 4.2kgs. I
phoned United Fisheries – no sardines in stock! 

​Yesterday my monitoring round revealed an injured chick in front of a nest box. It looked like a predator had dragged it out. It was very stressed and could not stand so it was another trip to the wildlife hospital.

Never a dull moment.
Have a great week!
Rosalie

​Hello friends and family,
Day by day we are making progress. The chicks are growing and becoming safer. We have had some frights with chicks losing weight and there have been several rushed trips down to the Dunedin Wildlife hospital with tiny scraps of life struggling to breathe. We have naughty chicks and compliant chicks. The always present problem of predators becomes more acute with tiny lives at stake.

​By the middle of the week, we had 61 chicks here, including one from Green Island, 5 at DWH, including one from Green Island, and a break from the daily trips down to Dunedin. 

​Daily nest rounds are necessary because Diphtheria is still ever present, as is the risk of choking from fish bones. It does get easier each day as the chicks grow. So far, none of the chicks have died here after returning from the wildlife hospital.

​Outside the nests, we have prolific flowering and growth. The flax bush outside my office window, usually good for 5 or 6, has put up 20 flowering stems. The trees are blooming and there is abundance everywhere.

​Hello friends and family
Another crazy week. The team have all stepped up to do the best for the penguins. Michelle joined us for 3 days. Elaine trained her up on penguin chick travel management when they brought 11 chicks home on Monday and then Michelle did 2 extra days.

​By Tuesday, all our chicks except for the last, late, nest had been taken down to the hospital. The job switched to bringing chicks home and settling them back into their nests. The parents have all waited patiently on a dummy egg except for one pair who took a short break one afternoon. Their chick came home the next day, so we are keeping a close eye on that nest.

​We have had another chick die. On Sunday afternoon I took a trip down to the hospital with it as it was gasping. It did not recover. There is a lot of mild diphtheria in the chicks as they return which we are treating, and the chicks seem to recover.

​On Wednesday the first two of the Green Island chicks came up to be fostered into a nest here.  We had space because of infertile eggs. Elaine and I did the chick run on Friday. We brought back the last of the chicks from the Moeraki colony and were still waiting for the last eggs here at Katiki to hatch. They are both pipping, and we expect them to hatch today.

As is the pattern, Yellow-eyed penguin chicks are very inventive in finding ways to die. Apart from disease, they can get fish bones stuck in their throats and we have had to save 2 of those cases this week. As each day passes, they get older and stronger. We continue to prioritise their survival.

​Hello friends and family
The roller coaster ride continues. We took chicks down to DWH on Sunday and Monday, bringing the first two back on Monday. They settled well back into their nests and on Tuesday, we had no trip to Dunedin as no chicks were ready in either direction. Of course, that changed when we found two weak chicks in a nest. Tuesday was Amy’s last day and she delivered them on her way south. We were very lucky to have her help as we got our routines established. Thank you, Amy.

​By Thursday, all the chicks from the Moeraki colony had been uplifted and returns were outnumbering deliveries. We had to split the first chick pair that returned on different days as one chick put on 250g in one day, while the other made no weight gain. At this stage we have a lot of flexibility as most penguins are sitting on dummy eggs.

​The great news for Thursday was that both chicks at Kawariki Bay are alive. This was the first pair of eggs abandoned. With the use of dummy eggs, we were able to get the parents back incubating and return the real eggs for them to hatch. The other abandoned pair will stay with their foster parents as we have not seen dad again. 

​It was my turn to be the driver down to Dunedin yesterday. Bronwyn and I delivered 4 chicks and brought back 6 chicks. It was a glorious, sunny day and great to be out there. Some of the chicks that we are bringing back have developed mild diphtheria and require a mouthwash. This requires very close monitoring and so the days are getting long. 

The team are in great spirits, knowing that this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Have a great week!
Rosalie

​Hello friends and family.
We are now doing daily rounds and welcoming new chicks every day On Tuesday morning, Jan and Robbie went to collect the first pair for transporting to the wildlife hospital. One was gone. – what a blow. The other travelled well and will be well cared for until it weighs 300g and then it will go back to the nest.

​We have put a camera out to see if there is a predator around. Amy, our volunteer arrived in the evening and settled in. You can find out about her day job at the National aquarium by Googling it.

​Wednesday was the first real test of our systems. I had the Toptip in the morning and my stitches out in the afternoon. This left the team to get the job done. They welcomed 5 new chicks and delivered 2 safely to DWH. There was no sign of predators at the first nest and no more dead chicks. It was not to last. On Thursday, one wee chick died when it was picked up from RDS (respiratory distress syndrome) and another was so dire we took another trip to Dunedin to try and save it, but sadly, it died the next morning. A team rethink was called for, we agreed to transport the chicks at 2 days old and not wait for the 3rd day. This resulted in 18 chicks going down on Friday.

​Saturday was quieter with 2 chicks going to DWH. Today we are taking 11 more chicks. These are rollercoaster days.

​Hello friends and family.
  The season has begun! We got the first pip on Thursday and those chicks will be off to the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital on Tuesday. Go well young penguins!
The weather has been great – fine during the day and rain at night – if not for the wind, all would be perfect! The team did the rounds on Tuesday and then went to the Bluffs for a picnic lunch, to celebrate Bronwyn’s coming of age. I was up and away by 6:30am on Wednesday for a bit of maintenance at Dunedin hospital. It is dramatic, but not painful.

​On Thursday, we split into 2 teams, I fed the Juvie at the Moeraki colony and others checked the nests here at Katiki. Then we were off to collect the rental car for delivering the chicks to the hospital. It is an Outlander, like mine so fit for purpose. It rained over night and there was snow on the foothills.
It was great to see our vet, Pauline on Seven Sharp on Thursday evening. You can see her here. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/seven-sharp/episodes/s2023-e185
Watch from 8:25 minutes to 12:04 minutes. 

The trip down to the point for the Hui on Friday morning was very cold with bitter wind from the south. However, the Marae was warm and the catering superb. I have eaten out 3 times this week! While Robbie and I were at the hui, Jan did the rounds and found another nest with pipping chicks. It seems that the first trip to DWH will have 4 chicks. On Saturday morning, National Geographic ran the story about avian Malaria https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/when-birds-get-sick/ We are the second story.

​Yesterday the team attended a talk about local geology. We certainly live in a great place.
Have a great week!
Rosalie 

​Hello friends and family
Excitement is mounting as the egg hatching gets closer. On Tuesday morning 5 of us set out to candle the eggs here at the lighthouse. We were very pleased to find all the eggs were fertile – especially the Kawariki ones that had gone cold earlier on. We will be returning those ones to their parents later in the week when dad is home as he is more settled.

​So, we set out in fine drizzle and by the time we had candled the eggs, we were well reminded of that, damp, penguin smell on our clothes. It will not disappear until the chicks move out of the nest boxes some time in December.
We completed the candling on Thursday and were delighted to have a 96% fertility rate. This means up to 75 chicks to take to the Dunedin Wildlife hospital (DWH) at 3 days old. The Kawariki eggs are back in their own nest and both parents are doing the incubating.

Our preparations have included updates to our permit to allow us to take the chicks to DWH, assembling the required equipment and agreeing to DOC supporting us by providing a rental car for a month. This support is wonderful and most appreciated. We can have up to 5 named drivers and so our roster will work well. The goal is to transform nasty November to notable November by increasing chick survival.
Bring it on!
Have a great week!
Rosalie  

​Hello friends and family,
On Sunday afternoon, I went to the Hampden Hall for an afternoon tea to welcome newcomers to the village. It was nice that the Hall committee put on the event. The big news from Sunday was that the penguin male from the Bluffs that had gone off was back incubating the eggs. On Monday the female returned so let’s hope they get back on the job properly.
The team came out on Tuesday, and we did a thorough search – no more nests. We must be grateful for the 39 that we have and do our best to get all the chicks through to fledging.

​I have begun planting my vegetable garden. The tomatoes and broccoli are in. I have planted carrots, capsicum, lettuce, and beetroot seeds and after that there is the butter beans and courgettes. If we are going to have a hot summer, I will make the most of it. Our water comes from the Waitaki river now, and it reaches up to the alps where a wet summer is forecast.

When we did the rounds on Thursday, Elaine lost her glasses. We will all keep searching for them over the next few days. I went to the hall yesterday to vote. Congratulations to Miles, our new local MP. He has a good grasp of the local conservation issues.
Have a great week!
Rosalie