Sunday 14th October 2018

Minding an egg from a threatened nest

​Hello friends and family
By the time I had treated the standing water last Sunday, I had walked 10 km. The gear that I was using was very light and so I was just pleasantly tired by the end of it. In contrast, on Monday I laid tiles in front of Robbie’s rehab and by the time I had cleared away the 6 bins of soil left over from putting in the drainage, carted about ½ m3 of shingle and the tiles, I was very tired!

A Pukeko nest at the water's edge

​On Tuesday, Robbie and I constructed the new mosquito proof soft release pens. This was possible because Robbie had pre-cut the timber and had a plan. We still had to carry all the old pens out and the new stuff in, about ¼ km up hill but that was relatively easy. Jan did the monitoring rounds and the penguins were all settled on their eggs, so we could work until about 3 pm when the penguins started coming home.

A clutch of ducklings hiding behind mum

​ I am so happy – delighted in fact- that our big plan has come to pass. There was an article in the ODT about a high incidence of Avian Pox in Wax-eyes and Wood pigeons in Otago. Part of the management is to control mosquitoes and isolate birds from them Tick, tick for us! 

Robbie putting the finishing touches on the soft release pens

​All of this has cost money and we have been so fortunate to have the support of the Farm next door and we have eaten into our financial reserves. My idea of tragedy is to have money in the bank and no penguins.

This is the car park after closing time - the silly season has begun

​On Thursday Jan and I were lucky enough to see a pod of 5 Orcas swimming north and when we did the rounds, all the penguins were very settled.

Baby sheep and baby trees - a challenging combination

The storm arrived on Friday. We had sleet, hail and high winds. I spent most of the day indoors – either soft or sensible, I am not sure!
Chris and Hiltrun arrived for dinner and we did the rounds on Saturday, discovering that a penguin egg had been stolen from the south nest during the week. This is the 3rd stolen egg we have experienced – people take them from the south end. I don’t know why.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
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