 When you don't have a wife...... Hello friends and family We have entered the starting gates of activity in the new season. On Tuesday we shuffled eggs to create spaces for eggs from other places that cannot be monitored. We are proud to be part of the collaborative effort to save the Hoiho. To be able to help, we must not solve tomorrow’s problems today. We visited the Katiki Beach nest and found the male to be Mr KB who is on his 3rd young wife in 3 years. Saving her life is now one of our top priorities. I am sure that he would approve of that.  Terns to warm the heart Our two new volunteers from Norway arrived on Tuesday night and on Wednesday we went for an orienteering walk around these 2 colonies. That was good prep for our Thursday rounds because it rained the whole day. We got lots of wet gear, but more importantly, 22 mm of rain for all the new plantings.  The shag chicks learn to collaborate from a young age It carried on raining on Friday, so we went to town and visited Robbie and Barb which managed to take up most of the day.  Native iris blooming in the rain Yesterday Hiltrun came up and WE HAVE CHICKS! One in each colony. How awesome is that! What a special week – a tui came and visited for several days, the terns are still on the island, and we have new chicks. Have a great week! Rosalie   Mrs 0 has been found Hello friends and family We are racing towards hatching! On Tuesday, we were joined by 3 penguin people from Dunedin. We love having them come up because we can all talk penguin stories to an empathetic audience. They came for the last of the egg candling Once again, on the first look, we have a high fertility rate. We took the penguin in care to Kawariki Bay for a soft release in our penguin tent.  Blooming broom The penguins remain very settled which is a bonus. All around us, spring is unfolding, and we have an abundance of blossom, perfume, bird song and real warmth in the sun. Murray supplies us with trays of seedlings and Jan, Trii and I are potting them up. Soon I will run out of space to put them so maybe they can go back to Murray’s place. It is very pleasant in the garden doing this work.  a guest in our colony On Wednesday Robbie and I went to feed the penguin in soft release, and, just as we had hoped, the spare male was standing by the tent taking a great interest in the sweet young thing inside. We fed her and decided to open the tent so they could meet. We are wanting to encourage her to move to a safe place. Twice she has been found on a public beach with loose dogs.  clematis Thursday was one out of the box. Firstly, the Clematis in the garden is blooming. Then, when we went down to the point, there were 100+ White fronted terns roosting on the island with the red-billed gulls. The monitoring rounds went smoothly and then we went to Kawariki Bay to make sure our soft release penguin did not need feeding. There in the tent was the adult male, I guess he was waiting for the young one to come home, she had gone fishing. We know the penguins like the tent, but that was unexpected.  too big to fit on the screen! Then to top off the day, Elaine and Bronwyn found a nest along Katiki Beach. It is one of the missing females from here. It will be interesting to find out who her partner is. Yesterday was the first time this season that I have seen the Spoonbills. They nest just north of here and their return is always a good sign. Have a great week Rosalie  This is my box Hello friends and family This has been a steady as we go week. The penguins have settled on their eggs and only the young, single males are creating much noise. Next week we may be needed to supply some foster nests, so it was important to candle the eggs. This is earlier in incubation than we usually do it so on Thursday we ran a trial to ensure everything worked.  Play time for the seal pups It all went well. We started with eggs that had been incubating for more than 21 days and the embryos and air sac were easy to see. Yesterday Hiltrun and I did some more. We will be completing the job on Tuesday of next week.  The new stockade dominates the skyline So far, we have detected a high fertility rate with only 4 dud eggs. This is good news as a reflection on the penguins’ current health.  Not all eggs are created equal. We have one penguin in care. It is a chick from last season, a female with Malaria who is responding well to her treatment. She will be released this week. Have a great week! Rosalie  penguins playing in the snow Hello friends and family This week was dominated by an unseasonal cold snap. It started on Wednesday when it was my turn at the Toptip. I was well rugged up for the cold and the quiet was disturbed when the sun came out mid-morning and so too did the families stuck inside with their children for the school holidays. Overnight the snow came in on a strong southerly and stuck to the south faces of everything. It lingered for all of Thursday but had gone by Friday morning.  many spring blooms got frozen The other feature of the week was us stepping up to using the new penguin app in the field. We have now transitioned to using it in the field for data entry on the phone. It works best offline because the phone reception can be patchy and who has time to wait for buffering?  Dan checking Robbie's screen from my phone The penguins have settled down to incubating their eggs. We focused our search where we had missing pairs but found no more nests. We have 25 here, 14 at the Moeraki colony, and 3 at the Bluffs.  hopefully, death to mosquitoes The cold weather gave me a good incentive to get inside jobs done so I did the GST return and found that many of our Penguin Rescue members had renewed their memberships so thank you for that.  Shag babies hatched in the snow On Friday our delivery of potting mix arrived. I can now carry on with the potting up of tree seedlings without constantly running out of soil. I am having to shuffle them on outside as the hothouse is needed for the next batch. Have a great week! Rosalie  The Kowhai is glorious Hello friends and family The week stared off with spring-like weather which always inspires me to plant stuff. I needed a home under cover for my many Pohutukawa seedlings so have converted the old chook house. They need to stay under cover for another 4 years, so I am putting them in planting bags big enough to last them that long.  one of many beautiful Kakabeak On Tuesday we were 2 weeks into egg lay and more able to identify the missing breeders. It is a reality of our work, that it does not matter how hard we work, if the nest numbers are not maintained, we are not saving the species. It is a nervous time. Kate was back with the team so we split into 2 groups to do the rounds so other jobs could get done. The hospital is now ready for the new season.  a true heroine - starting a new colony Thursday’s round revealed that the female here at Katiki, who always lays last, has changed her partner and is still to lay. No surprizes there! In the afternoon, Robbie and I went to the Bluffs and found an egg at Kawariki Bay. This is now a new colony. We are all thrilled that this has happened so quickly after the place was made safe for them.  A dummy egg will stop this penguin assaulting his neighbours I am filling up the days potting up tiny trees for future planting. We have an endless supply now, because of the July rain. Yesterday revealed the sad truth. We have lost 10+ breeding females. Our current best estimate of our total nest number is 39, down from 47 last year. Thank goodness for the 5 new recruits. We have not yet found any nests along Katiki Beach. On Tuesday we will begin thorough searches in our colony areas.  sitting tight - chicks expected any day now Have a great week! Rosalie |
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