Sunday 29th July 2018

Coming home

Hello friends and family
I am home again after a wonderful time with the family. I caught up with friends, brothers, cousins and all my offspring, partners and grand kids. They are all in fine fettle and a pleasure to be with. My travel was straight forward this time with no delays or challenges and I was even able to bring home 30 shrubs from Southern Woods in Christchurch to plant here and in the Moeraki reserve. The only problem encountered on my return was that rats had eaten the tomatoes that I had left ripening in the hot water cupboard – a lesson for the future!

A Spotted shag choosing a nest site. Nest building in underway

​Jan came out on Tuesday, so we did an audit of the penguin houses in the Katiki reserve. On Wednesday, with Robbie’s help, we began to fix the problems and just as we finished lunch we got a call from Fleur about an injured Albatross. It had been accidentally hooked by a fisherman and the chef at Fleur’s had done an excellent job of removing the hook. It needed rest and quiet to tidy its feathers. On Thursday morning I watched it fly off the clifftop and back out to sea.

The Albatross heads for the cliff edge

​Robbie came back on Friday and we re-located 4 nest boxes and cleared the path to another one. Job almost completed! We still have a few rabbit burrow entrances to block off. The rabbits do like to burrow in the nest boxes to have a dry entrance-way.

New lambs on the reserve for the first time in 20 years

Yesterday, Hiltrun, Jan Patrick and I cleared some more tangled jungle down the hill in the morning and Elaine visited to see the microscope in the afternoon. Jan donated blood, so we set up a slide. We can now connect it to the computer and see the field of view on the screen.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
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