 Just hanging out Hello friends and family Mrs k18 made a speedy recovery and we let her go on Tuesday. I am still potting up 8 cabbage trees each day, and other than that, doing deep cleaning. I have now finished the hospital and only have the Hugo wing left to get the job done.  The Five-finger is blooming again On Wednesday afternoon, Robbie and I went down to the end of season meeting at DOC in Dunedin and came away with no glimmer of hope that things will get better for the penguins in the short term.  Trying out the front nestbox for size That made it doubly pleasing on Thursday morning when we saw another fledgling returned down the hill, looking in great shape and very relaxed to be home.  Off to sea for the day Youenn arrived on Saturday morning to volunteer for a couple of weeks. I have asked him to get an idea of how many penguins we have down the hill now. He can go down in the late afternoon while I relax in the lounge with a glass of wine!  Getting the nest ready Today we will be planting trees at Okahau while the weather holds. Have a great week! Rosalie   morning at the lighthouse Hello friends and family This started out as a quiet week. Elaine and I celebrated Mother’ day with dinner at the Tavern – yummy as always! I took a load of rocks to the Bluffs on Monday and picked the pears in the Hampden orchard. There are still a few more apples to ripen.  3 shags The team came out on Tuesday, and we saw only a handful of penguins at home. I got an email from Mt Cook Salmon who will be donating some smolt to us which is awesome, the team at the OPERA will store it for us until the freezer is repaired.  evening at the lighthouse I went to town on Wednesday – no snow to be seen, but a good day to get my Covid jab. On Thursday, we found Mrs K18 at home again and she had taken a blow to the head and needed some help. She is responding well.  Tiny native broom, growing in the lounge Friday was busy. In the morning it was the Hui for the reserve management group. They were very empathetic towards the plight of the penguins. After a delicious lunch, it was off to the tavern to farewell Peter Whitehead who died recently. He had been a great help to Penguin Rescue by making trap boxes and little penguin cages. In the evening, I went to Hampden to hear Tamsin talk about her voyage through the North West passage. It was a great talk – a fitting highlight of a day when I did more socialising than the rest of the week put together! Have a great week! Rosalie  Back where they belong Hello friends and family The week began with pleasant weather, and it even got to 18 degrees when I was travelling home from the Toptip on Wednesday. It was a good time to release penguins, so I let 3 go – down to 2 fledglings in care, just fattening up to go after the next front has gone through.  There is great afternoon viewing on our YouTube channel The rain finally arrived on Friday morning, only 7 mm, but enough to keep the tiny trees happy!  Mrs 18 swam straight home as fast as she could This very cruisy week was turned on its head when I opened the big freezer on Friday just after 5pm to get fish out for the penguins, only to find it was defrosting rapidly. The freezer unit had stopped but the fan was still working, blowing warm air over the contents and defrosting it all rapidly.  2 shags on the rock What to do? I transferred all the current fish supplies and my food into the 2 freezers in the garage, but there was no room for the old fish. Why do I even have old fish you may ask? Because having fish to feed penguins is central to what we do. Just in case!  Where are we? It helps me sleep easy, knowing I have plenty of fish. It was good enough to use, if necessary, but now it is buried – 160kgs of it. I will call the freezer company on Monday to get the freezer repaired. Yesterday I released the last 2 fledglings as we are expecting calm seas for a while.  fledglings back in the wild Have a great week! Rosalie  Back in the wild after recovering from a wound. Hello friends and family The week began with more boring tasks, but a lot of satisfaction from doing them. The weather was mild and dry – I thought about watering the baby trees.  An abundance of sea birds The team came out on Tuesday morning and we picked up another fledgling. This one was just a bit light and is the first of the hand raised chicks to return. I did the monitoring rounds on Wednesday because we had the Oamaru penguin conference on Thursday and Friday.  It was worth getting up early on Friday morning This is a great chance for the whole team to network with other penguin conservation groups and to get updated about the latest research. Thursday was focused on Little penguins, and it was great to hear from new groups, advocating in their communities for penguins which means tackling the ongoing problem of dog attacks. One group has set up a radio network of cameras on the dunes and another has investigated Council compliance with the Wildlife act and only 4 complied.  A waiting pup Dinner was delicious. The weather was too unpleasant to go and see the Little penguins come home at the Oamaru colony, but those that did were pleased to see lots of them. We saw one on the pavement as we left the restaurant! Friday focused on other species and was very informative.  More north Otago glory Genetic research is revealing a lot about the penguins’ past – there is evidence that Hoiho have been here for over 3000 years.  Heading home early I did the rounds yesterday and the penguins were all out fishing. Have a great week! Rosalie |
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