Sunday 25th August 2019

Claiming a nest box for the new season

​Hello friends and family
I am writing this from Dunedin this week as I am attending the International Penguin Conference. This has been a busy week. I picked up a struggling penguin on Sunday. Robbie and I had a working bee on Tuesday – did the rounds, protected another 20 trees and installed the new donation box. Mel and Rachel visited on Wednesday and it was wonderful to catch up and discuss current issues.

Robbie secures the penguin

​Thursday was the Hui. Hiltrun, Robbie and I attended. Once again, it was a very pleasant gathering with a yummy lunch, but not a lot of urgency to act. Kristina and Thomas called in in the afternoon on their way to the conference. They are such positive penguin carers!

Home early to check out the real estate

​Friday was my day to catch up on emails and do the rounds. For the first time this season, some male penguins were at home, in their boxes, feeling the first stirrings of spring. Yesterday I set off for the 10th International penguin Conference, held in Dunedin. After a full day of presentations, we had a poster session. This involved interpreting our posters to anyone interested. My poster was about controlling penguins rather than people to reduce stress on breeding birds.  Hiltrun’s was about the impact of rehabilitation on colony success and Chris had one about changing penguin diet.

Spotted Shags nest building

​After that we had dinner with the delegates from SANCCOB in South Africa and Kelly Tarlton’s in Auckland. There are about 300 people attending this conference that runs through to Wednesday. So far there has been a lot of focus on penguin foraging at sea.

The first spring blossom

Have a great week!
Rosalie
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