Hello friends and family Another month has flown by. Having the two Daniels visit was just great. It made upgrading vehicles easy and that was a huge change for me. Young Daniel headed home on Tuesday, but his flight was sent back to Wellington because of bad weather in Tauranga. He had a night in Wellington before he finally made it home. Thank you, Daniel for your great effort. Bad neighbours The penguin chicks are nearly all over 5 Kgs and the biggest is over six. They are loosing their down rapidly and this makes it easier to find them. On Tuesday there was only 2 that we could not find so I went back to look for them on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday we also found a dead adult penguin here in the colony. It was one of our failed breeders. I had a quiet day on Wednesday and on Thursday the team weighed and took blood samples from the chicks at the Moeraki colony. This time we could not find the 134 chicks, but I located them on Friday and Hiltrun and I sampled them yesterday. Job done! The next job is to measure their heads to determine gender. Males have heads bigger than 142mm. We are weighing and treating the chicks once a week anyway, so it is no extra disturbance for them. On Saturday, Hiltrun and I weighed our second moulting juvenile – 8.2 Kgs so no worries there! North Otago continues to be green – almost unheard of but very beautiful anyway. I had to mow the lawns again! Have a great week!
Rosalie |
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January 2025
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