 Claiming a nest box for the new season Hello friends and family I am writing this from Dunedin this week as I am attending the International Penguin Conference. This has been a busy week. I picked up a struggling penguin on Sunday. Robbie and I had a working bee on Tuesday – did the rounds, protected another 20 trees and installed the new donation box. Mel and Rachel visited on Wednesday and it was wonderful to catch up and discuss current issues.  Robbie secures the penguin Thursday was the Hui. Hiltrun, Robbie and I attended. Once again, it was a very pleasant gathering with a yummy lunch, but not a lot of urgency to act. Kristina and Thomas called in in the afternoon on their way to the conference. They are such positive penguin carers!  Home early to check out the real estate Friday was my day to catch up on emails and do the rounds. For the first time this season, some male penguins were at home, in their boxes, feeling the first stirrings of spring. Yesterday I set off for the 10th International penguin Conference, held in Dunedin. After a full day of presentations, we had a poster session. This involved interpreting our posters to anyone interested. My poster was about controlling penguins rather than people to reduce stress on breeding birds. Hiltrun’s was about the impact of rehabilitation on colony success and Chris had one about changing penguin diet.  Spotted Shags nest building After that we had dinner with the delegates from SANCCOB in South Africa and Kelly Tarlton’s in Auckland. There are about 300 people attending this conference that runs through to Wednesday. So far there has been a lot of focus on penguin foraging at sea.  The first spring blossom Have a great week!
Rosalie  Jan and her mum mobbed by Gentoo penguins ,Hello friends and family I arrived home at 8 last night after an amazing trip. Jan and I went to San Diego to see Emperor penguins. This was intended as a bit of a busman’s holiday but turned out to be incredible. We started out by spending a night in Auckland to make our international connection stress-free in winter conditions, and we were able to do so at less cost than flying from Dunedin in the morning. This gave us the chance to visit Kelly Tarlton’s penguins. We saw Kings and Gentoos, thanks to the awesome people who work there, and shared the issues around our work.  King penguins with chick On the Wednesday night we flew to Los Angeles and it took us 4 hours from getting off the plane to Union Station where we caught the train to San Diego. We arrived there after 10 pm and crashed! The next day we met Uber. Using Uber cost the same for 2 people as using public transport and took much less time. I would highly recommend it. We took Uber to the San Diego Zoo, ranked as number one in the world and to our delight, found a colony of African Penguins there. It is a new colony, only 2 years old and with the penguins just moulted, they looked magnificent. The motto for the zoo is “no more extinctions”.  An African penguin  A Magellanic penguin  A Humboldt penguin The next day we went downtown and toured the Midway – a retired aircraft carrier. By now summer had kicked in and we were wearing shorts and tee shirts and coming home to the pool and spa. The next day we Ubered to Sea World which was just amazing. It exceeded my every expectation. They have 430 penguins of 8 different species. I have now seen every different kind of penguin although only one of the three Rock Hopper species. All the wildlife there looked amazing and the whole place was mind-blowing.  An Emperor penguin with an Adelie  Chinstrap penguin After visiting an artist friend of Jan’s, the next day, we went back to Sea-world because we could. The day after, we returned to meet up with more staff, including the wild-life rescue team and the vets. What a fabulous skilled, dedicated team they are, willing to share and advise. We used our last day to go back to the zoo and meet their specialist staff. Then it was back to LA, do the Hollywood tour and then home for me and off to Alaska for Jan.  Macaroni penguins Now I will catch up on stuff I missed while away.
Have a great week! Rosalie  A rare treasure - a juvenile Yellow-eyed penguin in 2019 Hello friends and family The two juveniles quickly settled into the Hugo wing and by Monday they were preening each other but pecky at mealtimes. I went to Yoga on Monday morning and wore warm clothes which made it a lot more pleasant.  Penguin blood - no Malaria here! Robbie and I did the rounds on Tuesday morning and then went to Jan’s to see if we could help with the big clean up of her section. She had it all in hand and it is looking great. I blobbed on Wednesday and Robbie came on Thursday. After the rounds, he installed the new money box and we returned the concrete mixer to Hampden. While I was there, I collected some kelp from the beach for the asparagus in the garden. I have been talking about doing this for 17 years, so it was not a rushed activity!  My heritage - I am a second generation New Zealander. Yesterday was the annual Yellow-eyed penguin symposium. We all went and Hiltrun, Elaine and I presented, along with Bruce Russell from Otago University who spoke about Malaria as our guest. He was awesome! In the morning the Minister of Conservation spoke and promised more money for rehabilitation. I did talk to her and suggest that any money was needed up front as promises don’t pay the bills.  Prospecting In the afternoon we were presented with glossy draft penguin saving brochures which are objects of beauty but what will they add to penguin conservation? We now have 6 weeks to comment on them – you will find the document here https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/penguins/yellow-eyed-penguin-hoiho/a-strategy-to-support-the-health-of-hoiho. Please comment and ask for action – we already have enough rhetoric to float yet another cruise ship on! At the end of the conference we sat and watched the governance group (all paid) give themselves gifts. (I am left speechless!)  Just a little rain brings life Have a great week!
Rosalie |
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