Sunday 4th November 2018

New life - new hope

​Hello friends and family.
Happy birthday Hamish! I hope your exams are going well and you have your summer accommodation sorted! 

Some of the ~ 200 White Fronted Terns that are roosting below the nesting gulls.

​After helping plant trees at the Waianakarua river mouth on Sunday morning I had a quiet afternoon pottering about and enjoying the day. Monday was a busy one! Julia and Megan came up from Penguin Place and did the monitoring rounds with us. Stewart, Robbie and Jan were here and our focus for the day was making a positive start to the season and sharing best practice. They brought up some boxes of fish and Wayne arrived with 20 more – the freezer is full! I even had to turn on the chest freezer for a day to be able to sort the old fish to the front and the new stuff in the back of the walk-in freezer. What a great way to start the season, with plenty of fish.

The supervisor is back at work!

​At the end of the round we had 15 chicks. The weather was miserable on Tuesday, so I went to town and got more wire and posts. Jan came out on Wednesday and we did the monitoring rounds. We found 24 beautiful chicks, and sadly, a dead one. Its sibling was very sick and scored a 4 on our new Diphtheria diagnostic sheet so we are treating it with antibiotics.

Our resident White Faced Heron on the hunt for geckos

​Jan, Robbie and I were joined by Vikki on Thursday and we managed to plant the last of this season’s bulk plantings – 36 Tussocks. We were not as lucky with removing the sheep from Seal Point – 3 attempts and only ½ of them out. We no longer own the sheep – they have been taken over by Ross the farmer to ensure that they get the best possible care.

New penguin chicks are very fragile

Jan and I checked the chicks on Friday and all was well – the same again on Saturday with Hiltrun which is awesome.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​