 Just messing about on the beach Hello friends and family I got off to a great start this week and painted the east wall of the house on Sunday. I also went outside at bed time and saw the aurora. I now know that I have seen it before, but on Sunday night it created a backdrop to Shag point and looked impressive – my camera did not capture anything!  The Falcon The falcon visited on Monday morning. I saw it again on Wednesday when I completed painting the 3rd wall of the house. I felt very pleased with my efforts but the effects lingered through Thursday and Friday when Chris and Hiltrun were here, and I was tired far too soon from planting flaxes and penguin houses on Thursday and clearing jungle on Friday!  New Sooty Shearwater chicks stretching their wings Most of the penguins are spending most of their time during the day fishing. Some are staying home and they look in excellent health. Part of our monitoring duties is the collection of casts. This is when penguins regurgitate indigestible bones and other bits of their diet. At the moment, we are finding crab claws and scallop shells. These may have been eaten by the fish that the penguins eat.  Sooty Shearwaters have begun their migration to Siberia The Sooty Shearwaters (Titi) are on the move. This small flock was resting in the bay. They fly from here, across the Pacific and up to Siberia. They will return in the spring.
Have a great week! Rosalie  Home time Hello friends and family On Sunday and Monday, Chris, Hiltrun, Hamish and I worked on a clump of bush at Seal point, turning it from an impenetrable matt of fallen trees to habitat for up to 5 penguin nests. We were able to do this because the sheep are off having a social life and we will not get any back for a couple of months. This gives time for the poison Ngaio leaves to rot.  Rat and rabbit habitat Tuesday was time to farewell Hamish and on Wednesday morning I did my stint at the Top-tip shop. Mel arrived after lunch to retrieve some equipment for her studies and to collect some penguin poo for DNA analysis.  Penguin habitat Chris and Hiltrun returned on Thursday night and we completed the other areas at Seal point so feel very pleased with getting that work done.  A seal pup checking out the soft release pen Slowly but surely our hospital penguins are returning to the wild. The rough weather stalled a couple of them, but as the sea calms down, off they go. I now have 2 penguins here and 4 in soft release.  Soft release - the penguins go when they are ready! Other than them, we now see very few penguins except on the camera as they are all out fishing during the day.
Have a great week! Rosalie  The old couple - one pre-moult, the other post-moult Hello friends and family – happy Easter On 17th May 2011, I wrote to DOC offering to manage the Shag Point penguin area for the penguins as I was dropping my work hours from 4 days a week to 3 and felt that we could make a useful contribution to conservation there. This week, we finally signed a permit to do predator control there. This is thanks to tireless work by our trustee Elaine Burgess who was prepared to jump through all the hoops and as soon as DOC have removed the pigs and repaired the fence we can start making the place safe again. We have traps ready to go!  The Little penguin has almost doubled his body weight On Monday I went to the skin specialist in Dunedin and took the opportunity to buy a house lot of paint so as soon as the weather is OK I can start painting. In the meantime, as it has been very wet, I have painted the inside of the new windows.  Nature's necklace - sheep on the cliffs On Tuesday, Maheno School visited and Wednesday was my Oamaru day. On Thursday one of the Yellow-eyed penguins in care died for no known reason and then on Friday, the rock Hopper was dead. We always try to save them all. Sometimes they come in with major organ damage from starvation. For a few days, they do just fine and then they start vomiting. Sometimes antibiotics do the trick, but not always. I hate it when any of them die and 2 in a row is tragic.  Tiny seal pup, waiting for mum Things picked up on Friday at lunchtime when grandson Hamish arrived from Christchurch. We got the garage sorted in the afternoon so that I can now shut the door with the truck inside. We had to find inside jobs because it was still raining. We got about 70mm over the 4 days.  Basket fungus growing in the reserve On Saturday, we relaxed and enjoyed a mild sunny day – still very wet underfoot!
Have a great week! Rosalie  Mrs 27 almost finished the moult Hello friends and family Last Sunday Elaine and I went to the local cider making day in Hampden and took a lot of tiny apples that were too small for the machine and some pears that had been in the freezer since last season. It was fun. Our small lot of fruit was slipped in between huge collections. It was first chopped and then pressed. We came home with several litres of juice, some of which is in the fridge and some of which is set for cider.  the lucky Rock-hopper Monday was a day for weeding and trimming and then on Tuesday I treated the last of the bees for varroa. I felt good about completing that task, and as I was leaving the last hive, I got a call about a Crested penguin at the boulders. When I picked it up, I thought it was a Rockhopper. It settled in quickly and is feeding well. It is just heading into the moult, and at 2 kg, it will need a helping hand to survive.  wild water On Wednesday, more fish arrived. This was 12 days after the order went in and a logistical challenge – needless to say, I got the opportunity to defrost the freezer! Chris and Hiltrun arrived later in the day and we got in 2 days of great work, making sure that every penguin was OK, weeding, removing redundant fences and creating a new nest site where a penguin chose to moult.  escaping the wild water As Chris and Hiltrun were leaving on Friday evening we got an email about a sorry penguin at Moeraki. We were able to retrieve it and now it has an excellent chance of recovery.  Just showing off our beautiful new feathers Have a great week!
Rosalie  Bunny photo bomb Hello friends and family After the damp start on Sunday, the sun came out and so Anne-Claire and I could get our penguin work done. I got a call from Fleur in the afternoon, asking me to speak to a group of visiting students, and she would shout us dinner. It all worked out just fine, the students were studying a paper on tourism so the effects of uncontrolled visitors to the reserve made the core of the subject. It was reassuring to have similar sentiments expressed in the media both before the talk and after it. When people hear the story of the penguin’s decline here, they always ask me why? Of course, I don’t know why our penguins are considered expendable by the people with the power to fix it.  Playtime for the seal pups On Monday Lisa brought us an emaciated Little penguin to rehabilitate and Tom and Erica arrived at the same time! It was chaos! Fortunately, Anne-Claire sorted out the 2 volunteers while I settled the penguin in. It was so chaotic that I lost the scales and it took 4 days to find them again. Tom has water-blasted the house for me and Erica has trimmed, weeded and cleaned the place so now it looks loved again. Anne-Claire left on Wednesday morning (thank you so much for all of your help) and Stewart brought in a new injured penguin.  Two Kaka-beaks thriving in the forest On Wednesday afternoon, we found another struggling penguin – a mum who was only 4.3 Kg and has not yet moulted. Thursday was time to farewell Tome and Erica and welcome Chris and Hiltrun. On Friday, we went to find the partner of Wednesday’s starving penguin. He was starving too, so very lucky that we went looking. We also noticed signs of Falcon kill so seeing it on Saturday was a real treat. We held great fears for her safety as a lot of poison has been put down for the rabbits.
Have a great week! Rosalie |
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