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Hello friends and family Happy Easter.  Well into the moult and looking just great. Somehow, with all of the preparation for a holiday, then fixing the stuff that I forgot, the week has raced by and here we are, enjoying the full moon and eating chocolate. Maria, Bryan and Daniel arrived on Thursday after a tumultuous flight from Tauranga to Dunedin in a rental car described as compact. Bryan is not a small man, but with a couple of centimeters clearance between his knees and the steering wheel, they made it here on Thursday.  Daniel is growing tall like his dad. On Friday we visited the Hampden section, beach and 4 square, then had hot cross buns for lunch. Bryan and Daniel pruned the plum trees for me and we looked after the 15 penguins in care.  Often the first sign of trouble. A penguin with injuries using its flippers to get up the beach. Yesterday we let two of the chicks go from the soft release pen and today we will release the adult Yellow-eyed penguin that has been in hospital at Massey university for a few weeks. He is looking magnificent! With one new patient and another 2 released we now have 11 penguins in care.  The moult is over, the penguins look spectacular! Have a wonderful week!
Rosalie Hello friends and family On Sunday we got 2 penguins into care – one was an injured Yellow-eyed penguin chick and the other was a Snares-crested penguin that washed up on the beach at Moeraki. Both are still battling stress and starvation in the best conditions that we can offer them.  All moulted and beautiful, enjoying the morning sun. Finding penguins means doing beach searches and I found another Yellow-eyed penguin chick injured on the beach on Wednesday. I am walking the reserves daily and the coast every second day.  Sheep and penguins hang out together. On Tuesday we had rain – 8 mm and so very welcome. By Friday it was impossible to see where it had been. Nevertheless, it was a good signal to start planting Broad Beans for spring. This winter I am going to plant 3 kinds – I do enjoy them and they freeze well.  Jack sparrow enjoying breakfast on the path. On Thursday we were visited by a bus load of Masters students from Otago University and they are studying Tourism. It was interesting to see them do the same thing as all of the younger tourists do – walk straight past the signs and go too close to the seals. By the time they had moved away, half of the seals had left the point and it was a perfect illustration of the need to prevent such behaviour in the first place as there is no way to undo it. They reached the conclusion that the only way to control the visitors is to have guides.  Off fishing - the first penguin is just getting into the water. I did the shopping on Thursday and called in to see Janice on the way home. She was in good spirits and pleased to be updated on the progress of the penguins.
Yesterday was a busy one when we rescued 5 penguins and let 2 go. We now have 9 penguins in care and 4 in soft release. Have a great week! Rosalie Hello friends and family  A pair of moulting Yellow-eyed penguins. On Monday we had a meeting with DOC, TRONT and TROM. These are the people who are responsible for the land here and we met with them last in early November. When we left the November meeting I had a glimmer of hope that something would be done to protect the wildlife but all that happened was that I was stopped from enforcing the closing hours.  An intruder who has just emerged from the seal breeding area into Hide Bay. After many hours of preparation, we met again on Monday and did a site visit. I left this meeting hoping that something will be done to protect the wildlife before the next breeding season or the colony will collapse even faster than it currently is. The animals and the cultural values of the land are being sacrificed to the tourists behind the veneer of bureaucracy.  Looking fantastic with all new feathers On Tuesday Hiltrun and I did a beach search and found 2 YEP chicks in need of a helping hand. Tuesday was also Tobi’s last day. Thank you Tobi for your help, skills and great ideas. A fresh viewpoint is always valuable!  1% of the south island YEP population visible from the pubic viewing area. Wednesday was my turn at the Top Tip shop and Thursday was town day. Thursday night was very windy. It blew many leaves off the trees and small branches were all over the drive. When we got a power cut at about 9pm, I just went to bed. When it is windy here, the TV reception is terrible anyway!  Mr and Mrs 111 moulting together after she was injured in February. Kat, the vet came on Friday to check out all of our patients (8 YEPs) and to trim the beak of one of the chicks. I have been doing daily beach checks in case more chicks need a helping hand.  The headland in the morning before all of the seals have been chased away. Yesterday was harvest time for the bees. Walter came down from Wedderburn with his worker, George, and they made short work of our honey crop. The bees get treated for Varroa at this time and are all set for winter. Some of them will need feeding with old honey because they have been so busy they have not got a lot of honey left for themselves.
Have a great week! Rosalie Hello friends and family This has been another dry week – a cold front went through early on, but brought no rain.  YEP with new set of feathers For all of February, we had 7mm – the drought continues.  Tobi at the Moeraki Boulders Tobi and I have slowed down a bit this week. We have caught up with ourselves with all of the outstanding jobs and so have some time to relax. All of our chicks except one have now fledged. The one left behind has a twisted beak that needs some treatment and he has a chick that had fledged and then been bitten on the feet, and brought into care, for company.  The gate is open, I am ready to go! Chris and Hiltrun came up on Wednesday night and worked all day Thursday. Hiltrun and I did the monitoring rounds and found 2 moulters that were underweight to survive to the end of the moult so we brought them in for supplementary feeding. I think that maybe the heat is taking a toll of their energy reserves.  Trying to catch the breeze while moulting. Chris and Tobi continued clearing fallen trees, protecting trees from rabbit attack and removing weeds.  Cooling off their feet at the ocean's edge. All of the work that we do incurs costs. If it wasn’t for our wonderful sponsors, we would struggle to make any progress at all. The ongoing support of NZ King Salmon, the Austin Company and many wonderful individuals has now been added to by the QE2 Trust. Thank you all!  White faced Heron. Have a great week!
Rosalie |
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