Sunday 15th December 2024

Season's greetings. The Southern Rata celebrates life.

​Hello friends and family
What with the Bird flu across the bay happening, we chose to not handle the chicks for a week, and it was great to find that they had all practically doubled their body weight in the last fortnight. These babies were well behind, but they are beginning to catch up. The heaviest weighed in at 3 kg. 

What's not to love!

​We have had some warm days for this time of the year so doing the rounds is a pleasure. On Thursday, the very last chick to be weighed was well down and so we decided that the best option was for it to go to the wildlife hospital. This chick was more than 10km from the bird flu zone, so it was not risky to take it there. DOC had already advised us that we could move penguins if necessary.

The Oyster catchers are proud parents

​This is the time of the year to reflect on 2024 and acknowledge how important your support is to us and therefore, the penguins. Thank you.

We helped Dr Mel celebrate her PHD.

​We have taken a beating. 4 nests down (10%) and half of the chicks dying is tough. Add to that the ‘unwelcome’ sign hanging over our facilities and the penguins, nasty November has brought us to a new low.

A tour group chases the seals off the point and into the water

​There have been good things – support from the Otago regional council, Alpine Salmon and our regular sponsors has kept us going. It has been a wonderful growing season for all the trees, both new and old. We remain dedicated to saving penguins, Hoiho in particular – the bird of the year.

A Juvenile penguin taking a day off, looking fabulous

Have a great week!
Rosalie