Penguin Rescue Update

A penguin is checking out nest boxes for the new season

​Hello friends and family,
It was crunchy underfoot when I set out to walk the coast on Sunday morning. At 10 am I received a call from Nicky to say there was a whale tangled in fishing gear off the coast, and they were heading out to free it. She wanted to know who to call in DOC.

Sunrise is after 8am these days

​I said that I would coordinate the call for her and shortly after, I saw their boat powering out from Moeraki harbour and heading straight out to sea from where I was standing. All I could see was 2 dots on the horizon. After about half an hour, they headed back again – the whale was freed.

the 3 big shags have taken over the rock used by the little shags

​It was not local fishing gear. The huge seas last week may have dislodged the fishing gear from further south and the whale got entangled in it. The sun continued to shine, but when I got to the solar panels, it was easy to see that the trees had grown up to shade it. The batteries were only at 3v.

Mr 200 is already preparing the nest for the new season

​I came back in the afternoon to cut back the short trees, the taller ones had to wait until Tuesday. After a bit of detective work, we could see that the problem was not with the batteries, and the camera remains offline for now.

The 3 shags enjoying the sunshine

This has been a quiet week. I am potting up native Broom and planting Ngaio trees, at a slow pace, limited by weather. The Kaka-beak seeds are germinating in the lounge and I am eyeing up the southern Rata seeds still on the tree – they are a few months off being ready.
Happy Matariki!
Rosalie

A sky view of our 3 reserves