Penguin Rescue Update

basking in the sun

​The week began with nice weather and so Dan and I, set to and made up 100 wire circles to put around small trees as rabbit protection. Most of these will go to the Bluffs to protect Pohutukawa, but the rest will replace plastic tree protectors at Okahau. Two of the penguins in care decided that they had had enough, so we released them.

These penguins are 1 m up and wanting to leave care

​Jan and Robbie arrived on Tuesday and the main task was to do some maintenance on the traps. We got halfway round Katiki. There are a lot of traps!

The pups have moved into the forest and are looking for mischief

On Wednesday I went to a doctor’s appointment in Dunedin for some maintenance and then Dan and I went to the pizza place at St. Clairs for lunch. I dropped Dan off in town and he headed home while I came back to the lighthouse.

Daytime bunnies in our bunny plague

Murray and Robbie came out on Thursday and Robbie did more trap maintenance while Murray and I did the rounds. Sadly, we found Mr. 171 dead in front of his nestbox. There was no sign of a cause and when I contacted Megan, 2 other penguins had died that day. Mr. 171 was in his 20th year. We did not have him in care through the moult.

on sunny autumn mornings, Red billed gulls gather on the beach in their hundreds

Have a great week,
Rosalie