Mhairi McFarlane's box

This box was sponsored some time ago and finally this year a single yellow-eyed penguin male has taken residence. It is always the first step to breeding: find a house and occupy it, then try to attract a mate. He probably considers himself somewhat successful because he is enthusiastically incubating a dummy egg: this will prevent him getting jealous of the families in the neighbourhood and keep him from trying to take over chicks - this has happened in the past (with fatal consequences for the chicks in the ensuing fighting) and the dummy eggs keep the single males occupied and the chicks safe. It's now December and the chicks have grown a lot and these bachelor boys will be giving up their eggs now and hang about in the colony hoping to spot a unattached young female in the general traffic that they could entice to their abode.