​Hello friends and family
Over the weekend, change was triggered in the penguins’ behaviour. We found 10 new moulters on Sunday morning and the chicks have started to fledge. We opened the soft release pen on Sunday and by Monday, all 4 chicks had gone. By Tuesday, there was only 11 chicks left between both colonies.

​Most of the moulters are looking great so far. We will keep a close watch on them to make sure that they do not get emaciated as their moult progresses. On Monday morning I took the blood samples down to Noi at the university and she had the results back to us by the afternoon – one positive for Malaria out of the 2 sent. 

​On Thursday, Robbie, Elaine and I were joined by Jason and Megan. There were only 3 chicks left down the hill here and 2 at the Moeraki colony. We took a pair of moulting penguins from the public area of the historic reserve and put them in the soft release tent. We re-tested both Mrs 70 and chick 70 – both had no visible Malaria, but the new Juvie did have it. Mrs 70 now has an infection.
We found a new juvie moulter which is always exciting. It had been in care during the winter but fattened up enough to moult in the wild – a success story

Yesterday was a reminder of how precious and vulnerable these penguins are. A fledgling was found on the Moeraki boat ramp with fatal injuries, and we picked up a dead 3 year old, with no wounds at all. We suspect Malaria.
Have a great week!
Rosalie

​Hello friends and family
It was a cold start to the week – back into winter socks and a throw on the bed. By Tuesday it was warming up and a good time to take the first 4 chicks to soft release. The oldest chicks in the colony have fledged and it is always strange to visit an empty nest as even though the chicks may be hiding or sleeping, when they leave, it feels different. 

​We also erected the moulters tent. If we get a penguin into care underweight pre-moult, we can fatten it up and then let it moult in the tent – all the feathers are dropped, and no clean-up is required – we just move the tent. The penguins love it and will go back into it when they have been released. This was also the day that the donated fish from the Antarctic centre arrived. Thanks so much for this donation. The penguins don’t mind the smaller fish, it just takes longer to feed them, all good.

​The days are filling up. On Wednesday morning I had my first visit to the Hampden house and met the tenants – lovely people. In the afternoon I fed the chicks in soft release and did the water blasting.
There were 4 of us to do the rounds on Thursday. There were no new juveniles moulting but we did see 2 two-year-olds and a few adults. Slowly the chicks are disappearing. The pillowcases that we use to weigh them in are getting very tattered. We took 2 Juveniles that had had Malaria to the tent to complete their moult.

On Friday I released the Fiordland Crested penguin at lunch time when I was feeding the soft release chicks. By 3 pm Stewart had seen it back at Shag Point so it was surely ready to go.
Have a great week!
Rosalie

​Hello friends and family.
We have now found 11 moulting juveniles and 2 came into care on Tuesday. We also picked up Mrs 70 and her chick. She and 2 juveniles all have Malaria. Mrs 70 is here for her 3rd bout of Malaria. She came in with it in 2019 and 2020. She was okay last season. In that time, she has produced 3 more chicks. Let’s hope they are developing some immunity.

​Our core team of Robbie, Elaine, Jan and myself were joined by Bronwyn on Tuesday. We were measuring heads here at Katiki to help identify gender. So far, boys are outnumbering girls. When we repeated the exercise on Thursday at the Moeraki colony, there were more girls than boys!

​On Thursday we were joined by Carissa who is doing her PHD in changing the behaviour of dog owners at beaches with wildlife. We had a lively discussion and then she joined us at the Moeraki colony before having a late lunch with Bronwyn. After that I went to Moeraki beach to rescue a Northern Giant Petrel that had stranded on the beach. As I was leaving, some locals arrived with their dogs that they let out of the truck without even looking along the beach. Foolishly I spoke to them about having their dogs on a lead. The chasm is very wide.

​On Friday I got a call about a penguin seen from the road on Katiki Beach. I rescued a sorry looking Erect Crested penguin. Like the Fiordland penguin that came in on Monday, crested penguins are very social. Seeing another penguin reduces their stress enormously. Fortunately, penguins can see each other from the pens within each enclosure as we are required to keep each species separate. The Tawake (Fiordland) penguin, has his own opinion about this and chooses to jump into the pen with the Hoiho chicks. Each feed I put him back into his own pen, so we have this game that we play. With 15 penguins in care, it is never dull!

Hiltrun arrived in drizzle yesterday and it cleared up. We were able to get the rounds done and the penguins fed before the rain returned.
Have a great week!
Rosalie

​Hello friends and family
It has been a warm and busy week. On Monday I got my COVID booster and on Tuesday morning the team was joined by Jim and Jordana as we work to have a closer relationship with the Dunedin Wildlife hospital. We found our third Juvenile moulter, at a good weight, in the reserve and had to scramble to catch the chicks as they venture further from the nest to weigh and treat them. The blood sampling is now completed, and we have found 3/40 chicks in the field with Malaria, so they have come in for treatment.

​On Wednesday Robbie and I had a meeting about possible funding models in Dunedin and traveling down in the new car is so nice I can’t resist going up the hills at 100kph after 14 years of 60 kph!

​Thursday was the first very wet day for doing the rounds. The car performed very well on the wet grass, so we were off to a good start! The challenge of finding, catching and treating the chicks was compounded by rain and wet, slippery ground. We nailed it! The trick was to plan a strategy for each chick that minimised movement and then move quickly. We got the 22 chicks sorted in about an hour. After that, the rain eased of course, but it was all good.

​It rained all day on Friday and over the 3 days we got 46mm of gentle rain. By Saturday morning it had all soaked in and the reserves were mostly dry. Hiltrun and I did the rounds and noticed the chicks are getting closer to the sea. Next week the first of the hospital chicks will go to soft release.

We now have 4 moulting juveniles! My best guess is that we will have around 30 all up.
Watch this space.
Have a great week!
Rosalie