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Hello friends and family What a relief to find all penguins sitting nicely on their eggs when we did a monitoring round on Tuesday. We have had some spring like weather – sunshine and wind. When I mowed the drive on Thursday, the lawn is burning off so I will probably not need to mow it again until the autumn.  heading home to incubate We have started the process of candling the penguin eggs and so far fertility appears to be high which creates a problem for the 3 eggs that we have saved when their mothers abandoned the nests. I am sure that we will find a good home for them. In the meantime, an egg has disappeared from a nest site visible to the public, the same nesting pair that was robbed last year.  Incubating. Note how clean the egg is - a result of very dry weather Today marks the beginning of the New Zealand tourist season. In spite of promises of action, nothing has been done by those legally responsible for Yellow-eyed penguins to protect them from another year of 50,000+ uncontrolled visitors who come from all around the world. The disgusting “long drop” toilet, designed for a few trampers in the bush remains unchanged, with no hand sanitiser and so smelly that many people come onto my place and use the back of the hedge as a toilet.  Spoonbills spooning Yesterday Marian came and together we visited all the bees. Marian inspects every part of the hide for an incurable disease called American Foul Brood. We found a swarm and were able to get it into a bee hive. Marian showed me how the bees advertise their new home to the rest of the swarm and I saw them marching into the hive. Awesome!  Our second new helper at Okahau point - job - motivator. I have now planted my potatoes and carrots. I gave up on my crop rotation for the carrots and put them in where they did so well last season. The potatoes have been moved and I will shift the courgettes and pumpkins too.  Our first new helper at Okahau point Have a great week
Rosalie  Waiting, waiting, waiting.... Hello friends and family The week got off to a grand start with a trip to Oamaru to collect potting mix to plant the tomatoes for the season. They are doing well. Chris and Hiltrun came up on Tuesday and we enjoyed having Raewyn and Hugh for dinner.  Now the apple tree is taking centre stage in the garden Wednesday was my day for volunteering at the TopTip shop and I was pleased to learn that I will be able to get raw milk for cheese making next week. The weather has been great and so I will be able to extract the Varroa treatment from the hives this week and begin gathering honey.  On Thursday Nola came out and did her first trap round. It was the first round for this spring and it is good to know that the predators have options as the burrowing sea birds return to nest.  An unusual visitor - a Californian Quail On Friday, Chris, Hiltrun and I did the nest rounds and were very concerned to find 2 abandoned Yellow-eyed penguin nests. We have fostered the eggs out and hope they are still viable. There is nothing else that we can do when this happens. Last year we had some success but it depends on how cold the eggs get.  Cute Bunny We put artificial eggs in the abandoned nest so if the parents return and settle, they get their own eggs back.
Have a great week! Rosalie  Waiting for a partner. Hello friends and family. The much promised winds arrived on Sunday afternoon and the first hint that they were serious was when they blew over the power pole outside the house.  Power lines down across the lawn Somehow the lines stayed connected but I did not walk under them just in case. Then by Monday morning, they had blown the house off a penguin sitting on eggs on the point so I went down and replaced it, securing the box in place with warratahs this time. I always feel bad when this happens – the penguins choose to nest in boxes because it should be safe in all weathers.  A fine new post and all damage repaired. The winds ripped up the circles placed on small trees to protect them down near the sea and the challenge there is the rotten fence posts that wave about and rip the circles out of the ground.  Shags line the top and Spoonbills are in the middle. The winds continued until Tuesday when we visited Moeraki to check out the Stewart Island Shags. It was a treat to see that the Spoonbills are returning. The Sooty Shearwaters are coming back to nest here on the point. Thorough searches have revealed no further Yellow-eyed penguin nests which is quite devastating. This colony has dropped 30% and Okahau Point has dropped 17%. As these birds share the same ocean and weather conditions, we are left to assume that the difference in survival rates relates to conditions on land. The most obvious difference is the relentless stream of people coming here with all their noise and bustle. Every night I am asking people to leave who overstay or arrive after 7:30pm. The opening and closing signs are back out on the road but are ignored by too many people. This is not the first Yellow-eyed penguin colony decimated by uncontrolled tourism, we can only hope it will be the last – there are no more left.  Bees in the garden. However the work goes on, and we wish all our nesting penguins a successful breeding season.
Have a great week! Rosalie  patiently waiting .... Hello friends and family. I returned home from 2 weeks of family time on Friday night, feeling excited to be back and keen to see what the penguins had been up to.  My mountain. Chris and Hiltrun came up yesterday and we went out and checked all the nest boxes. We found 43 nests with eggs – not as good as we had hoped, and different from last season in that there are not a lot of busy males nest building all over the place, but every nest is just so precious!  Yes, I am working - keeping 2 eggs warm. Not only are the penguins making the most of the spring, the Stewart Island Shags are nesting on the island off Moeraki. While I was away, all of the low down Spotted Shag nests disappeared, making me think that there had been some rough seas.  Stewart Island Shags on Motiti Island September brought us 26 mm of rain which was enough to keep our little trees green. More is predicted for today so I am hoping it rains  Okahau Point looking green Have a great week!
Rosalie |
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October 2024
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