Sunday 5th March 2017

Beautiful new feathers

​Hello friends and family
The much-heralded arrival of summer here produced some very pleasant but grey days. I went around the bee hives and it is still only one apiary that has produced any quantity of honey. This week was the big release of chicks to fledge, 9 all up have set out into the big blue and only one has decided that it was not ready yet!

The departure of the stile.

​There has been a steady release of moulters fat enough to get through the moult and some more arrivals that are underweight to survive. We now have 7 Yellow-eyed penguins here and 3 in soft release. 

Old feathers and new feathers

​The new path into the reserve is now completed. The old path has been blocked off so this means real progress in the protection of the penguin colony as now the human disturbance is confined to the south end. People will no longer disturb the colony to the north or the west. How fantastic this is! In December, the Council recorded 100 vehicles coming out here each day. Now there are even more. The next critical step is to enforce the closing time.

Looking beautiful , resting in the shade

​Chris and Hiltrun came up on Thursday evening and we spent our time updating rabbit protection and weeding. Chris is battling with Boxthorn and me with Poro Poro. The visitors here this week included Cedric and Maureen Wilson, Bronwyn Judge and Bill and Judy Eason. The garden continues to produce food at a great pace.

Our resident White-faced heron

Have a great week!
Rosalie
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