 Yes, I do have an opinion! Hello friends and family The best thing to be said about this week is that it is over! Each chick that has survived is a miracle that we are grateful for. The team has stepped up and we do the rounds with at least 2 of us each day. The big days are Tuesday and Thursday when we give the chicks their weekly weighs. This week we were joined by Janelle who took swabs so now all of our survivors have been swabbed. This is quite tricky work to do in the field – on the side of a slippery shitty hill, with no traction, it is a challenge!  Just loafing! Wednesday was a death free day thank goodness. Sadly, on Thursday we had a new problem – chick disappearance. Somehow when a chick goes missing it is worse than for an egg. All of this drama plays out surrounded by glorious flowering trees and shrubs with wonderful perfume!  abundance The reason we weigh the chicks weekly is to be able to intervene before a thin chick becomes a dead chick. This happened on Thursday. One of our chicks had only put on 100g in a week. Records showed mum had not been seen for a week, so we uplifted the chick and fostered it into the nest of a recently bereaved pair. They were both at home at the time and accepted it immediately. I put a camera on the nest to observe feeding but what I saw was the chick checking out the new neighborhood. This is age-appropriate behavior but concerning when the individual is so small.  Find the wayward chick Yesterday one of our oldest chicks, that had been healthy to date was found dead. This is yet another challenge as we thought it was past the danger zone. It has gone for an autopsy. We now have 47 chicks alive. Have a great week! Rosalie   2 healthy chicks that have not needed help Hello friends and family The week got off to a rough start with 2 dead chicks on Sunday morning. These were not tiny, new chicks, but 10-day old ones that should have been out of danger. Hiltrun took them down to Dunedin for an autopsy. Monday was worse – 2 dead chicks, 3 sick ones and another missing egg. The sick ones were gasping for breath so we took them down to the Wildlife hospital where they can be given oxygen. One survived.  we did save this one Then Tuesday was worse than that – 4 dead chicks! It takes courage to look into the next nest box. Wednesday was bad again with 2 dead chicks but on Thursday, Friday and Saturday we were grateful that there was only one chick died on each day. They are not dying of diphtheria but some other problem. For some it is food obstruction in the throat, for others it is that hatching was too hard.  the egg thief All we can do is keep going, treating the ones we can and farewelling the ones we can’t.  these chicks have completed their treatment for diphtheria We are now at the point where 40% of the chicks here at Katiki have died. Each day takes us a step out of the danger zone for the chicks and we cope one day at a time. Have a great week! Rosalie  Oh so precious. Hello friends and family We have enjoyed some warm weather – on Monday I got into shorts! We have begun daily rounds – on Tuesday we found Diphtheria in chicks from both colonies, so treatment has begun. At one nest, both parents were home which is never a good sign – sure enough – sick chicks. We are so fortunate to be able to treat this disease. Many of life’s risks to such tiny scraps of life cannot be managed and so we have to accept this and just do our best.  Just loitering! We were joined by Janelle, an American doing post-doctoral research in disease identification and we took swabs from the chicks we weighed to keep disturbance to a minimum. After doing 3 nests down here, we did 3 more at the Moeraki colony. The system that we have developed worked well and our time at each nest was less than a minute. Basically, when we check for oral lesions, we swab, so the only addition to the routine is cloacal swabs which is very quick.  Penguin rescue coordinated the rescue of this rare visitor to New Zealand Thursday was not a good day. We found 2 dead chicks. One had only just hatched and the other was a week old. There were a lot of pairs at home which is never a good sign. Sure enough, we found more sick chicks and their treatment was begun. By the end of the round we had 45 chicks.  Magnificent, even in the rain Friday was better, no dead chicks and our number was up to 50. Yesterday was wet, but no dead chicks! We now have 53 and are 2/3 of the way through hatching Have a great week! Rosalie  The egg shell is a sign of action in the nest Hello friends and family We have chicks! The first chicks hatched last Sunday and were doing very well until yesterday when we found one dead with bones stuck in its throat.  A visiting female Sealion Robbie, Stewart and Murray did the rounds on Tuesday and we were joined by Jordana from the Wildlife Hospital in Dunedin. By then we had more chicks and they were all doing well.  Cabbage trees are beginning to bloom On Wednesday I did the Toptip in the morning nd Nicola and Mark came in the afternoon and took all the bee gear away. I have decided to give up beekeeping because I was not doing a good enough job of it. The new people are very keen and I hope they enjoy keeping bees on the farm.  A webcam shot - check out the time of it On Thursday Robbie and I did the rounds and we had 10 chicks with more on the way. It has been a windy week and the place is drying out fast  Another cute baby resident Hiltrun and Elaine came yesterday and we were reminded that we are just bit-players in the lives of our penguins. There were 2 dead chicks - the choked one and another which did not survive hatching. We did find another 17 chicks doing well so far. Have a great week! Rosalie |
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January 2025
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