 Hello friends and family We say goodbye to 2025 with relief – it was a below average year, and we have learned some lessons, but are pleased to put it behind us.  It began badly with 6 Penguin deaths in care – 3 of unknown causes, 1 injured and 2 of Malaria – we have not had more that 2 die in our care for 10 years. Despite the mild weather, our seedling crop was miserable and failed to thrive. I lost a freezer full of fish and meat in October, then Nasty November delivered a savage blow – ¾ of our chicks died, mostly from RDS (red lung disease).  We are looking forward to a much better 2026. The recently released DOC report on the state of the northern Hoiho population says we must do better with adult and juvenile survival, not just the chicks. To that end, we will be uplifting the juveniles that are hanging around in the new year and will support them through the moult.  Mr. and Mrs. 212 taking a day off The team has been out to do the monitoring rounds, the chicks are doing well, and the adults are looking chunky still. They are going post-guard which is normal for this time of the year.  Home alone in the boxthorn I got a call from the McTavish family about 5pm on Boxing day. There was a Hoiho on Moeraki beach, so I went and picked him up, Mr 172 – he is a good weight but being in the wrong place is often a sign of trouble.  Mrs. 165 ready to leave Elaine came out and we took bloods yesterday and he has no rampant disease. She dropped me at the top of the hill on her way home and I walked the coast, checking for other stragglers. Dan arrives today and we will bring the New Year in with a check of the Titi. Happy New Year to you all  Full of promise Rosalie   Our Pohutukawa is ready for Christmas Hello friends and family Merry Christmas Another quiet start to the week – so enjoyable! Liam has been potting up tiny trees and coming on beach checks.  What is going on out there? On Tuesday, we were joined by Jan and Bronwyn, so we were able to weigh all the chicks down the hill and give them a health check. They all looked fabulous! Then the rain arrived in the afternoon, watering all the plants and cooling things down. On Wednesday morning we went to Okahau and put wire netting around small trees that had outgrown their protectors, to protect them from rabbits. We also went to Tickle Bay and retrieved a camera that showed us 2 juveniles roosting under the boxthorn at the north end.  How to ensure that your chick looks up to you On Thursday, the cold arrived, it was much more comfortable inside, but we weighed the Okahau chicks in the morning and went to the Bluffs in the afternoon, to help Bronwyn weigh the chick there. It turned out that she would not have needed us anyway as the chick was post-guard and in the box.  Home alone - a sure sign of Christmas week. Thor came on Friday and took our juvenile down to the OPERA. She is recovered and lively, so needed company as she is pre-moult and has a few weeks of rehab to go to see her through that. Yesterday we picked up Mrs 165. She has been home for days and only weighed 4.5kg. She has an infection and no appetite – she will be with us for a few days anyway.  Mrs 165 staying home for days Have a great week and wonderful Christmas Rosalie   Our two youngest chicks are growing up fast Hello friends and family After a quiet start to the week, Mel arrived on Tuesday morning to train Robbie and I in the new microchip insertion procedure. She had 3 others with her, and we chipped the chicks down the hill. It was a well-prepared training session that went smoothly. In the process, we found Mr 26 looking unwell, so Murray brought him up the hill into care.  there are lots of seal pups arriving In the evening, our new volunteer, Liam, a young man from Germany arrived, as did Thor. We successfully retrieved the tracker from the adult at Okahau, but by 8pm the Juvenile had not returned so we will catch him on another evening. We went to town on Wednesday morning and caught up with Henry at the Oamaru Blue penguin colony. In the evening we saw the elusive Juvenile, but he raced back out to sea very quickly.  becoming independent and managing those feet Thursday was a busy one. We began at the Bluffs by microchipping the chick there and then came back here to do the 4 at Okahau. By then it was lunchtime. On the way we picked up an underweight juvenile and Elaine analysed its blood – it has an infection. In the evening, we had our Penguin Rescue Christmas dinner at the Tavern and very enjoyable it was too! At the same time, we had a severe thunderstorm with hail, so it was too wet to go down the hill to catch the juvenile with the data logger. He waited for us and we picked him up the next morning and retrieved the logger. On Saturday, Liam and I did some pruning work at Okahau.  A Leopard seal hauled out at Anderson's lagoon Yesterday we went to Anderson’s lagoon and saw this leopard seal on the beach – he would have been 2m long. In the evening, we had a fabulous dinner with Jo and Jerry. Have a great week! Rosalie   penguin care - note the chick's blue eyes Hello friends and family Delightful December has replaced nasty November and all 12 of our chicks are doing well. We have observed some glitches, where both parents have gone off fishing and left the chicks home alone. When this happens, the chicks hide and sleep, not drawing attention to themselves. The Oyster Catchers are in the opposite camp – as soon as they see movement, they run around the beach squawking, trying to draw attention away from their eggs, just lying on the beach.  Gull chicks There is a big contrast in the behaviour of the Red billed gulls and the White Fronted terns that nest along side them. The gulls squawk at such a deafening level, no one lingers near them for long. The terns stay silent and fly off, over the water.  terns On Monday, Thor and Amy came to do the second tracking deployment on an adult and a juvenile. Once again the penguins played nice and the juvenile called out to us as we walked past, just to make sure we didn’t miss him. He had left a nice pile of poop to be collected and analyzed.  last week's data logger carrier, just relaxing at home We do the rounds regularly because at this stage, the chicks can get a bone jammed in their throats. The traps are catching rats and there are so many mice, we see them running across the path. The temperature has gone up – on Friday it was 30oC. This results in the chicks being taken out of their nest boxes by the parent, and resting in the shade.  hiding in the boxthorn I will release the juvenile in care today and measure it to see if it is male or female. Have a great week! Rosalie  |
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