Penguin Rescue Update

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