 The Erect-crested penguin feeling better Hello friends and family The penguin season got off to a great start with 9 eggs laid by Sunday and as of Friday we have 25 nests. On Monday, I drove down to Dunedin in the camper for a meeting at DOC at 5 pm. I had not been to their new offices so was interested to see the set up. It was very wet (we got 26 mm) but beautiful spring scenes with frolicking lambs and cherry blossom everywhere. I stayed the night at Chris and Hiltrun’s place and brought back a van load of young trees. They followed me up to be here for the meeting with DOC and Ngai Tahu here on Wednesday.  Our spring supervisor is back The meeting was the best that we have had so far. We now have a lock on the gate to stop people going down the north side of the colony so the penguins will have less disturbance. On Thursday, I moved the hospital penguins to the soft release pens and helped Chris plant 6 more trees. Chris and I also had our first session with the new accounting software and can see that we will be able to manage the finances to the new Charities standards.  No eggs here yet! Yesterday was a day of rest! I did as little as possible and just enjoyed a spring day. Now that New Zealanders have voted for more of the same, the battle for our environment must continue.  A Broad-billed Prion in the reserve Have a great week!
Rosalie  Feeling very poorly Hello friends and family Monday and Tuesday were cold and showery so I spent time in the hothouse, potting up Cabbage Trees. Wednesday dawned much better – the wind had dropped and there was some sun so after a busy morning at the Top tip shop, I decided to finish off treating the bees. All the hives looked good, the weakest one was the one here.  An Oyster-catcher photo bomb After completing the last hive, I was feeling very pleased with myself and got in the truck to leave the Lighthouse hills apiary when I got stuck. My all-terrain tyres decided that they did not extend to soft paddock so I took the practical approach and began to walk home. Fortunately, Doug from next door was on his way to the woolshed and rescued me and my truck with his very awesome tractor.  Seal pups keeping each other warm He had to tow me all the way to the top of the hill as I could not get traction on a slope. Luckily, I do not have to go back until early November! On Thursday, I picked up the sharpened chainsaws from Owen and gave some tree Lucerne plants to Nadine and Robyn. This will free up space for the Cabbage tree seedlings.  Seals and penguins happy together But Friday was the big day – we found 3 nests at the Moeraki colony with their first egg. It was a day for the females to stay in the nests at both colonies. We found 4 two-year-old females, about to breed for the first time. 3 had been rehabbed for their first moult and one had been rescued as a pre-fledge chick too. That means that of the 4 potential new nests, 3 needed assistance along the way. Both the three-year old female and the four-year old female were at home and looking fantastic. Our hopes are high!  Such a beautiful egg Have a great week
Rosalie  A pair of Yellow-eyed penguins enjoying the sun Hello friends and family I have had a week of catching up on jobs around the place. Somehow tasks just seem to accumulate until there is no comfort in ignoring them anymore and so I have burned prunings, dug gardens, sprayed thistles and potted up plants. Most of the jobs that accumulate have a previous step and so on Tuesday I ordered more mite control for the bees and began the spring Varroa management by treating the hives at Eason’s road. The 4 hives looked strong.  A Juvenile penguin going past I had lunch with Marian on Thursday and then picked up Chris from the bus. We went to the Moeraki colony and continued our planting and weeding work for the afternoon and the next morning. The timber for making new penguin boxes arrived and now Chris has work to do in the shed if it rains.  An adult just resting The male penguins are staying home and making a lot of noise and somehow this seems to be an invitation to the irresponsible tourists to climb the fences and disturb the birds. By chasing the last of the breeders within public view, these people are destroying the tourist experience for everyone else. Research presented at the Symposium showed that being within 50 m of a penguin disrupts its normal behaviour. The penguins cannot breed successfully with this harassment.  Human footprints stomping all over penguin footprints And just when I could easily despair, we get a generous donation from the Netherlands and I realise that the work we do matters to the whole planet.
Have a great week! Rosalie  Penguins moved into a nest box Hello friends and family The weather has been nice down here and so I have dug gardens and mowed lawns. I have bought my seeds for spring planting and have given up on pumpkins after 15 years of failures!  one of these feathers is just not quite right Chris arrived on Thursday morning so we could catch up on overdue paper work. The grey weather for Thursday and Friday made it easy to be indoors, listening to the penguins calling and getting on with admin. In a month’s time, we will know how the season will start and this waiting for the first egg can only be called character building.  A juvenile penguin back home again after the big trip north Yesterday Walter, Theresa and Paul visited from Clyde and brought along 4 more Little penguin nest boxes that they have made. They are real craftsman masterpieces and so we hope there will be babies in them before too long!  All fattened up and looking for a wife Elaine came for a visit so I got to catch up with 5 of the trustees yesterday. Awesome.
Have a great week! Rosalie |
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October 2024
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