Sunday 20th March 2022

Kind people helping to save penguins

​Hello friends and family
The week began with the arrival of a starving fledgling. It arrived in style, in a taxi! On Monday morning, the Erect Crested decided that it was time to go and jumped out of his pen and in with the neighbour, who was not well pleased with that. He still had a few stray feathers on his flippers, but his tail feathers were well on their way and now, so is he. Elaine reported an injured shag along Katiki Beach but my searching for it was not successful.

Autumn glory

​On Tuesday it was good to see a lot of fresh penguin poop, from the penguins who have now moulted and are coming home with full bellies. We have seen most of our breeders return to moult, but the few gaps are concerning. The 3 penguins that we found dead in previous weeks are considered to have died of Malaria.

Modern retirement

​I went to Oamaru on Wednesday and picked up my new hedge clipper. They are waiting on parts to repair the old one. On Thursday, Robbie and I were joined by Murray and Bronwyn. They have a new electric car, a Leif, that is the best clean option for their lifestyle. We released one penguin and brought one in. It is so fortunate that this is a quiet season so far as I am feeding the rehab penguins lots of small fish. They don’t mind, but it takes longer.

Large guests ono the front lawn

Recently another penguin organisation released its first newsletter. Please support them by subscribing. Go to https://www.nzpi.nz/ and as you look around, there will be a pop up to subscribe to their newsletter.
Have a great week!
Rosalie