Sunday 24th September 2017

The Erect-crested penguin feeling better

​Hello friends and family
The penguin season got off to a great start with 9 eggs laid by Sunday and as of Friday we have 25 nests.
On Monday, I drove down to Dunedin in the camper for a meeting at DOC at 5 pm. I had not been to their new offices so was interested to see the set up. It was very wet (we got 26 mm) but beautiful spring scenes with frolicking lambs and cherry blossom everywhere. I stayed the night at Chris and Hiltrun’s place and brought back a van load of young trees. They followed me up to be here for the meeting with DOC and Ngai Tahu here on Wednesday.

Our spring supervisor is back

​The meeting was the best that we have had so far. We now have a lock on the gate to stop people going down the north side of the colony so the penguins will have less disturbance. On Thursday, I moved the hospital penguins to the soft release pens and helped Chris plant 6 more trees. Chris and I also had our first session with the new accounting software and can see that we will be able to manage the finances to the new Charities standards.

No eggs here yet!

​Yesterday was a day of rest! I did as little as possible and just enjoyed a spring day.
Now that New Zealanders have voted for more of the same, the battle for our environment must continue. 

A Broad-billed Prion in the reserve

Have a great week!
Rosalie
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