Sunday 26th January 2020

Fed and washed - the chicks are changing very quickly.

​Hello friends and family
This time of the year we get lots of visitors. Most of them are friends, or friends of friends and so I have to be a bit social, and drink lots of tea and let jobs slide. Urgent jobs are always done – like feeding and cleaning, but some jobs I just delegate to the rest of the team. I have been particularly lucky with the two Daniels who step up graciously to all sorts of tasks – leaving me to be the hostess.

The Tawake - Fiordland Crested penguin, responding well to care.

​Young Daniel went home on Wednesday, leaving the other Daniel fully trained in penguin chick feeding. I have not had to feed them all on my own yet, but it will be easy as they are all now trained to feed from the hand. We have 58 penguins in care and can feed then prepare the next meal with two people in under an hour.

Another predated sea bird....

​As well as feeding and cleaning, we test the penguin’s blood for Malaria and found the last chick that we brought in has Malaria. We have a Fiordland Crested Penguin with a bacterial infection and a White Flippered penguin that has very poor feather quality. We have added our trapping lines to the NZ Trap web site and can now record catches straight into our phones in the field. This is my idea of excellent – single data entry.

How many pups can you count?

Last night Daniel and I went to Elaine’s Karaoke party. It was a lot of fun and I am a bit slow this morning!
Have a great week!
Rosalie
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