Sunday 8th October 2017

No eggs so lets go fishing

​Hello friends and family
On Tuesday Hiltrun and I did the monitoring rounds and the news was not good – no more eggs laid.
I found another egg on Wednesday which had us with 44 nests (47 last year) and we found one on Friday, bringing us to 45. The weather has been quite spring-like. Warm days with lots of sun, and episodes of high winds that broke branches and dropped the temperatures.

The scarred warrior with his wounded flipper

​The fighting penguin from last week healed nicely and so he has been released and a dummy egg put in his nest to calm him down and keep him away from the neighbours. He was brooding it the next day, with his feathers all clean so he had been to sea for a wash.

Kowhai in the garden

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Yesterday I joined Elaine, Jan and Stewart on the Shag Point trapping round. The reserve was in full bloom with Clematis and gorse everywhere. We trapped one stoat but there was no penguin sign at all. It was lovely to hear the Bellbirds.

A Goldfinch in breeding plumage on the clothesline

The morning chorus here is such a great way to greet the day.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
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