Sunday 19th June 2022

home early with a full tummy

​Hello friends and family
Winter arrived this week, so it was out with the thermals and more time indoors. The issue was the cold winds from the south, so it was alright in the colonies that are sheltered from that direction, but uncomfortable getting there!

getting ready for spring

​So, the task at hand is gathering the season’s data for the annual report. Some of it is disturbing – we trapped 35 ferrets. Of these, only 2 were lured by food – the rest were lured by their dead friends. We don’t have hungry ferrets, there is rabbit meat in abundance. 

claiming a nest site

​We found more than 50 predated White-Faced Storm petrels. My guess is that they were killed by rats. We had no idea there were that many petrels here, but now there are not. We don’t get the rats in the traps, so there is nothing we can do. 

home in a hurry to beat the waves

​There is good stuff too, but not enough of it. We did the usual rounds and on Wednesday, Robbie and I went to the retired aviary north of Oamaru to check out the wire netting that the lovely people there are willing to give to us. It will be a big job so we will have to plan it out. And then there are our regular sponsors that fund our work so generously.

supervising the palisade construction

We are also beginning to see penguin poo at nests not used before, so this is always very exciting! There was a set of footprints in Ogden Bay and the one penguin at home yesterday was very chunky!
Have a great week!
Rosalie