 such a clever penguin! Hello friends and family In the spring, the weather makes a big difference so on Tuesday when Megan came up from Dunedin to do the rounds with us, it was very calm, and we all soon warmed up going up and down the hill! We candled the rest of the eggs and only found 3 more infertile ones. That was 7 from 86 which is a fertility rate of over 90%.  spring glory In the afternoon, the sea was still like a mirror, so when several whales came by, I could see them off Shag Point. One was breaching and slapping the water with his tail. Awesome. He was later spotted again off Hampden beach.  The family at home Thursday was very awesome too, clear skies and bright colours. It was also the day that our webcam went live. Thank you to those of you who now follow our channel. You can find the live stream here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu1cS8soDrbXoGM7zyZbi2g. On Friday I went down to Dunedin and picked up four eggs to foster in the colony. We are using all possible resources to save as many penguins as we can and by having them here, we can monitor them closely.  waiting patiently Murray, Elaine and Hiltrun came out yesterday and we did all the egg transfers to maximise our productivity here. The tiny eggs laid by 2-year-old females have gone to older experienced breeders. The 2-year-olds each have only one larger egg to raise so they will not be pushed beyond their capacity to cope. The exciting news is that we have our first pip!  The first of the cabbage trees in bloom In no time at all we will be back to cute chick pixs. Have a great week! Rosalie   Still waiting... Hello friends and family The lingering cold weather fools us into thinking there is no rush to prepare for hatching but our first chicks are expected this week. The main task at hand is candling the eggs and so we have begun this process.  before... On Tuesday, Jim, our new liaison person with DOC came up for the day and did the rounds with us. Fortunately, there were no penguin dramas and so we were able to discus issues big and small and plan for the best future for the penguins.  After weather and predator protection has been added. On Thursday, Stewart joined the team, and we began candling eggs, doing 3 nests here and 3 at the Moeraki colony. After that, we went to the Bluffs and found another nest with 4 eggs, one of which is fertile! Very exciting as this brings the Bluffs total to 9 eggs – there must be at least 5 breeding females. On Friday we candled the Katiki Beach nest and both of those eggs are fertile.  Shag chicks growing fast Yesterday Hiltrun and Bronwyn came, and we candled more eggs. We have a high fertility rate this season which is wonderful. While we were on our rounds, we came across a car with a dog that had been driven through a paddock with lambs in it and parked within 20 m of a penguin nest. The owners were on the rocks looking for paua. The worrying thing about this is that other than trespassing on the farm, our society finds this behaviour acceptable. Our 4 year battle to get this land protected goes on.  an attitude of entitlement We now have calendars. Not only do they make a perfect Christmas gift, but they also educate and help save Penguins as well. Please support us by buying lots. They are $20 each. Make a deposit into Kiwi Bank 38-9016-0481348-01 with your name and code it ‘sales’. Reply to this email with your postal address and I will send them out ASAP. If you live overseas, use Give a little. Postage is included. Have a great week! Rosalie  An adult and a juvenile on the headland Hello friends and family Hiltrun came up on Sunday and we did the rounds. The abandoned eggs were transferred to safe nests where experienced pairs will brood 3 eggs for a while, until we can replace infertile eggs later on. We then went to the Bluffs to rescue another egg and it too is now safe. The wind arrived on Monday and Robbie and I did the rounds on Tuesday morning between the showers. There were a lot of spare birds at home, including 5 pairs of an adult with a juvenile as well as several lone adults.  Look how much these babies have grown We picked up a sick looking juvenile and Elaine came out on Wednesday to do the bloods. On Tuesday afternoon we went to Oamaru to see Robbie presented with his citizen’s award. After that we went to Scott’s Brewing Co for pizza and beer. It was a great occasion for well-deserved recognition for contribution to conservation.  One of my hothouse helpers Murray joined us for the rounds on Thursday and was the scribe for the day. At the moment, Dan is rewriting the app to make it suit us better in the field. Each stage in the season has new recording requirements, so we may end up with several apps. We put a box over the open nest by the path and rescued Mr 32 who had a flipper injury. His eggs have been fostered out as he will not be able to cope with parenting until his wound has healed.  These days the penguins are heading out at 6 am Our webcam is now in the trial phase. We need 1000+ followers on our channel to be able to stream it to the world. Please help by going to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu1cS8soDrbXoGM7zyZbi2g and becoming a follower.  Penguins love to sit up high and trap boxes are perfect Yesterday when Elaine, Hiltrun and I did the rounds, we saw a whale. It was about 50m offshore and surfaced several times, showing us his tail as well! I think it was a Right Whale. Awesome! Have a great week! Rosalie  Mrs Flipper bird with her scars, on her eggs Hello friends and family The much-heralded storm that began the week, delivered only 7 mm of rain, but was very cold and gusty. Only Murray and I braved it on Tuesday morning to do the monitoring round. We found 7 new eggs but no new nests. We also located one of the missing males by using a dummy egg. His ex-wife has transferred to the other colony. The time has come to put the dummy eggs out in the nest bowls built by single males.  More Shag babies On Wednesday I did my stint at the Toptip and was surprised at how many people came – we have a low tolerance for bad weather in North Otago! On Thursday it was just me doing the rounds as Robbie was helping connect the webcam. We have a total of 43 nests.  One of the miscreants I had 2 days to feel good about that, then on Saturday afternoon, I discovered that the path pair had abandoned their eggs. The eggs felt cold to touch, but we don’t give up hope easily. I fostered them to one of the males with a dummy egg – thank goodness we had put some out on Thursday! I put the dummy egg back in their nest in case they just had a hiccup and return to incubate. The single male will be good for another 4 – 5 days on his own then he will need to go fishing.  The chaffinches are beautiful On Saturday morning, Jan and I went down to Dunedin to farewell Helen, Stewart’s wife. It was a lovely service and we met up with Hiltrun there to show some team support. Stewart has been saving penguins at Shag point for about 30 years.  yes, it is possum poop as the hedgehogs don't climb trees! Hiltrun is coming up today and bringing the incubator, so we have choices with extra eggs. Have a great week! Rosalie  an 'open' nest aka squatting in the flaxes In spite of the cooler air, the week started off with clear skies and little wind. On Tuesday we were joined by Murray, so we split the team in two and Robbie took Murray to the Moeraki colony and Lindsey, Margie and I did the nest checks here. We found 20 nests here and there were 15 nests at the Moeraki colony. How awesome was that! After the rounds, we worked on the Webcam project, installing the solar panels, and clearing the tree blocking the sun.  Robbie adding finishing touches to the solar panels On Wednesday I got my second COVID jab and feel very pleased to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.  The clematis is stunning On Thursday we found 40 nests plus one of the gay guys is back! Once again, a dummy egg did the trick and provided all the motivation he needed to settle in the nest. Just as well! There were penguins on the loose at both colonies – juvies and young ones testing out the fences. We brought one of them home. Just on 5 Kgs and very flat – not standing or running away. This replaces the juvie we had in care that we released at the Moeraki colony. It is very unusual for the penguins to need a helping hand at this time of the year.  Lindsey releasing the recovered juvenile On Saturday we took his blood and found a very high white blood cell count which is a sure sign of infection. Thank goodness we picked him up. After that we did the rounds on Saturday and found more nests. We are 2 weeks into a 3-week process and have 24 nests here and 18 at the Moeraki colony. This is an increase of one from last season. The spare males are beginning to play up and we found 2 in the neighbour’s nests – a big worry as eggs can get broken when they fight.  beautiful sunsets this week. We will keep up our monitoring. We have made 544 entries on the nest-checking app already! Have a great week! Rosalie |
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