​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!

​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!

​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.

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

​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.

​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.

​All we can do is keep going, treating the ones we can and farewelling the ones we can’t. 

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

​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.

​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.

​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.

​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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

​Hello friends and family
In the spring, the weather makes a big difference so on Tuesday when Megan came up from Dunedin to do the rounds with us, it was very calm, and we all soon warmed up going up and down the hill! We candled the rest of the eggs and only found 3 more infertile ones. That was 7 from 86 which is a fertility rate of over 90%.

​In the afternoon, the sea was still like a mirror, so when several whales came by, I could see them off Shag Point. One was breaching and slapping the water with his tail. Awesome. He was later spotted again off Hampden beach.

​Thursday was very awesome too, clear skies and bright colours. It was also the day that our webcam went live. Thank you to those of you who now follow our channel. You can find the live stream here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu1cS8soDrbXoGM7zyZbi2g.
On Friday I went down to Dunedin and picked up four eggs to foster in the colony. We are using all possible resources to save as many penguins as we can and by having them here, we can monitor them closely.

​Murray, Elaine and Hiltrun came out yesterday and we did all the egg transfers to maximise our productivity here. The tiny eggs laid by 2-year-old females have gone to older experienced breeders. The 2-year-olds each have only one larger egg to raise so they will not be pushed beyond their capacity to cope. The exciting news is that we have our first pip!

In no time at all we will be back to cute chick pixs.
Have a great week!
Rosalie

​Hello friends and family
The lingering cold weather fools us into thinking there is no rush to prepare for hatching but our first chicks are expected this week. The main task at hand is candling the eggs and so we have begun this process.

​On Tuesday, Jim, our new liaison person with DOC came up for the day and did the rounds with us. Fortunately, there were no penguin dramas and so we were able to discus issues big and small and plan for the best future for the penguins. 

​On Thursday, Stewart joined the team, and we began candling eggs, doing 3 nests here and 3 at the Moeraki colony. After that, we went to the Bluffs and found another nest with 4 eggs, one of which is fertile! Very exciting as this brings the Bluffs total to 9 eggs – there must be at least 5 breeding females.
On Friday we candled the Katiki Beach nest and both of those eggs are fertile.

​Yesterday Hiltrun and Bronwyn came, and we candled more eggs. We have a high fertility rate this season which is wonderful. While we were on our rounds, we came across a car with a dog that had been driven through a paddock with lambs in it and parked within 20 m of a penguin nest. The owners were on the rocks looking for paua. The worrying thing about this is that other than trespassing on the farm, our society finds this behaviour acceptable. Our 4 year battle to get this land protected goes on.

We now have calendars. Not only do they make a perfect Christmas gift, but they also educate and help save Penguins as well. Please support us by buying lots. They are $20 each.
Make a deposit into Kiwi Bank 38-9016-0481348-01 with your name and code it ‘sales’. Reply to this email with your postal address and I will send them out ASAP. If you live overseas, use Give a little. Postage is included.
Have a great week!
Rosalie

​Hello friends and family
Hiltrun came up on Sunday and we did the rounds. The abandoned eggs were transferred to safe nests where experienced pairs will brood 3 eggs for a while, until we can replace infertile eggs later on. We then went to the Bluffs to rescue another egg and it too is now safe. The wind arrived on Monday and Robbie and I did the rounds on Tuesday morning between the showers. There were a lot of spare birds at home, including 5 pairs of an adult with a juvenile as well as several lone adults. 

​We picked up a sick looking juvenile and Elaine came out on Wednesday to do the bloods.
On Tuesday afternoon we went to Oamaru to see Robbie presented with his citizen’s award. After that we went to Scott’s Brewing Co for pizza and beer. It was a great occasion for well-deserved recognition for contribution to conservation.

​Murray joined us for the rounds on Thursday and was the scribe for the day. At the moment, Dan is rewriting the app to make it suit us better in the field. Each stage in the season has new recording requirements, so we may end up with several apps. We put a box over the open nest by the path and rescued Mr 32 who had a flipper injury. His eggs have been fostered out as he will not be able to cope with parenting until his wound has healed.

​Our webcam is now in the trial phase. We need 1000+ followers on our channel to be able to stream it to the world. Please help by going to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu1cS8soDrbXoGM7zyZbi2g and becoming a follower.

​Yesterday when Elaine, Hiltrun and I did the rounds, we saw a whale. It was about 50m offshore and surfaced several times, showing us his tail as well! I think it was a Right Whale. Awesome!
Have a great week!
Rosalie

​Hello friends and family
The much-heralded storm that began the week, delivered only 7 mm of rain, but was very cold and gusty. Only Murray and I braved it on Tuesday morning to do the monitoring round. We found 7 new eggs but no new nests. We also located one of the missing males by using a dummy egg. His ex-wife has transferred to the other colony. The time has come to put the dummy eggs out in the nest bowls built by single males.

​On Wednesday I did my stint at the Toptip and was surprised at how many people came – we have a low tolerance for bad weather in North Otago!  On Thursday it was just me doing the rounds as Robbie was helping connect the webcam. We have a total of 43 nests.

​I had 2 days to feel good about that, then on Saturday afternoon, I discovered that the path pair had abandoned their eggs. The eggs felt cold to touch, but we don’t give up hope easily. I fostered them to one of the males with a dummy egg – thank goodness we had put some out on Thursday! I put the dummy egg back in their nest in case they just had a hiccup and return to incubate. The single male will be good for another 4 – 5 days on his own then he will need to go fishing.

​On Saturday morning, Jan and I went down to Dunedin to farewell Helen, Stewart’s wife. It was a lovely service and we met up with Hiltrun there to show some team support. Stewart has been saving penguins at Shag point for about 30 years.

Hiltrun is coming up today and bringing the incubator, so we have choices with extra eggs.
Have a great week!
Rosalie