​Hello friends and family
I spent Sunday preparing for a working bee on Monday. The Dunedin DOC team came up for a working bee and we planted out the water tanks on the top of the hill. It was great to get that job done as it is the last planting of the season. Ross has connected a water supply so we will be able to water the trees through the summer.

​Mel arrived in the afternoon with her penguin searching team and it was great to catch up!
On Tuesday, Liam Wairepo, the Waitaki Labour candidate came out for a visit, so we were able to alert him to the challenges that we and the penguins are facing. The weather delivered a little magic which was a nice change from the rest of the week.

​I spent Wednesday indoors, catching up on administrivia, and the same again on Friday. I don’t know whether it is expectation which makes spring cold weather worse than winter cold weather, but it was enough for me to choose indoors.
Will brought Dom out on Friday afternoon so it was great to meet him. He is working on a research grant that Penguin Rescue has established to develop an app to improve penguin monitoring. 

Yesterday we candled the eggs in 25 of the 42 nests.7 were infertile, giving a starting point of 86% fertility. This is average for YEPs
The calendars have arrived. They are $20 each. To place your order, please deposit the amount in our bank account Kiwi Bank 38-9016-0481348-01 , Penguin Rescue, with your name and ‘calendar’ as the code. Then email me and I will post them to you. Postage is included. If you are a paid up member, you will get one anyway!
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
Nothing stays the same here for long. I spent Sunday tackling the “to do” list and was interrupted by a man who wanted to buy the camper.  On Tuesday he came and took it away. I am very pleased to have it be used by someone else. 

​Our last breeding penguins have laid their second eggs and so incubation begins – there is less than 2 weeks until the first egg hatches, so we are very excited!  We spent Thursday morning making 2 nests safer for the chicks when they arrive. 

​Dealing with amphibious species presents its own challenges in that it is very difficult to give an accurate head count. Penguins come and go to their own agenda – some stay out at sea and some stay home. The best way to track the population is to count nests. This gives a comparison over time to measure the size of the colony. Most Yellow-eyed penguins lay 2 eggs which may be fertile so even counting eggs is not as useful as counting nests.

Yellow-eyed penguins are philopatric – they return to their breeding sites, often to the detriment of their long-term survival. Our increase in nest numbers is because we have recruited 5 new breeding females – they are only 2 years old and 4 of them were hatched here. The other one moved here over a year ago. Our increase is not at the expense of other colonies.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
We have turned the corner – 41 nests so far and 3 more 2-year-old females that may yet figure it all out! This is an increase of 8% - any increase will do – it is the first since 2013! The team is happy to take the credit – we think managing both Diphtheria and Malaria is key.

​There is news on the wider bird front as well. The Spotted Shags have laid, and the Titi are returning from Siberia – each day there are more burrows excavated with bird footprints and the unmistakable smell of Titi.

​The Red-billed gulls have begun nest building.
The weather, on the other hand, has thrown everything at us. Blizzard conditions and raging seas have been daunting. Patrick and I were out checking the penguins and the tourists kept on coming. How they kept their campervans on the road is a mystery to me.

​This is a fabulous time of the year; spring delivers promises and then we are back to winter. I have planted the tomato plants in the hothouse and the Kakabeak seeds are sprouting. This week I will plant peas, with the hope that we can eat them fresh for Christmas.

Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
We have stopped the slide!
We now have 38 nests which is the same as last season. For the first time in 8 years, our numbers are holding. I am confident that we will get more, but for now, knowing that we are not facing yet another decline is fantastic!  Hiltrun and I found the 38th nest yesterday – 2 young penguins - she is 2 and he is 3. You can be sure that they will get the very best care.

​We also put out the dummy eggs yesterday. These are placed in the nests of spare males to keep them from trying to steal the neighbour’s eggs. We did this now because some of the breeding pairs are very stressed – not incubating yet and running away. We put out 9 eggs here and 10 in the Moeraki colony. I will be keeping a close watch to make sure that things calm down in the colonies. Some of the males may yet attract a partner so we can uplift the dummy eggs if they are not required. There are still 3 pairs thinking about breeding.

Yesterday we had the annual meeting of Penguin Rescue Soc Inc and there was about 20 people there. We had a guest speaker who spoke about dogs and wildlife, Hiltrun presented the annual report and Patrick agreed to join the committee. Jennifer and Will were wonderful hosts and the Moeraki hall was once again, a great venue. I was able to get the data show working so was pleased about that! One of the attendees complimented us on holding a very interesting AGM.
The meeting supported our decision to develop an App for penguin monitoring and approved the grant of $25 k to get it off the ground.
These are exciting times!
Have a great week
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
Coming home from a holiday always means some catch up is required, and for me this time, there was the added bonus of activity in the colonies. I must force myself to stay out and let the penguins get on with it in peace. I manage this with varying levels of success.

​By Thursday we had positively identified all but 1 breeding female and found 3 new ones. With the 2 that died during the season last year, we are on track to have an increase in nest numbers this season. This time last year, we were still waiting for the first egg. It is enough to give us speed wobbles.

​The lambs have arrived next door and so we are careful about our movement in the paddocks to prevent miss-mothering. They grow so quickly – after a week they have filled out their saggy skin and are frolicking in the paddocks. One has already decided that playing on the road is fun, and care is required.

For a penguin nest to count, new eggs must be laid in it. A male will make several nest bowls, but only the one with eggs counts! By yesterday we had 24 nests and had identified the 36 surviving breeding females. This is very exciting. The colonies are veery noisy with penguins running around. On Saturday we will put out the dummy eggs.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
We have eggs!
I have had a wonderful break from penguin-land. First of all, Elaine and I travelled to Picton and enjoyed the unfolding of spring – it was mostly new lambs and flowering plum trees. We spent the night there and crossed to Wellington the next day to be hosted by Elaine’s son Jay, and his partner Sam. We dined on gourmet burgers which were delicious. The next morning, I caught the bus to New Plymouth. Lunching in Palmerston North on the way was a bit freaky as they clearly had not even heard of Covid so mask wearers were a bit of a novelty!

​Paul picked me up from the bus and the family all went out to dinner to celebrate Pamela’s birthday. The next night we had Dot over for dinner and it was great to see her for the first time in several years – in great form of course and fresh off the bowling green too!

​The next day, Paul, Jen, Olivia, and I headed north to Marokopa and then inland to the waterfall and natural bridge at Te Anga. What a fabulous way to go home. The glow-worms were magical. Spring was unfolding again – this time with lilies, turkeys, goats and Pukekos. Paul, Jen, and Olivia live in Hahei, which is a slice of Kiwi heaven and the gateway to Cathedral cove. The weather was warm and the days full. On the Thursday we went to Whangamata, to catch up with Dick and Esther and on the way home, Jen and I cycled the Pauanui track.

​More of the family arrived to enjoy the weekend at Hahei and on Sunday I came south to Papamoa to stay with Maria, Bryan, and Daniel. On Tuesday, Gavin and I climbed to the summit of Mt Te Aroha which rewarded us with panoramic views. After I had visited Michael and Shirley, we all went out and ate Indian on Wednesday night, which was absolutely delicious, but not that sensible as I had 12 hours of travel to get home on Thursday. Spring had moved on to flowering cherries and the lambs were now frolicking. 

On Friday I checked the nests and on Saturday, Hiltrun did a second round.
We now have 8 eggs and over 50 active nest sites. Some of them are two-year olds joining the breeding population which is always exciting. Watch this space!
Have a great week
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family.
I had a holiday at home on Sunday and Monday. The weather was glorious, and I pottered around in the morning, and then went for a long walk in the afternoon. On Tuesday there was a cold wind that made being outside unpleasant so after doing the rounds with Robbie and Patrick, I came indoors and worked on the computer for a while.

​I have decided to get off the fence and wear a mask when I go to public places.
On Wednesday I went to town and bought a new set of kitchen taps. The tap in the laundry was broken, and rather than just get a new one for there, I decided to upgrade the kitchen taps and replace the laundry tap with an old one from the kitchen. When I got home, I phoned the plumber and they were able to come out to do the job that afternoon. Unfortunately, the pipes were corroded, and the plumbers needed to come back to finish the job the next day. I am very happy to have new taps – the others were ancient!

Our Thursday working bee Tasks ranged from removing a dead seal, emptying the chest freezer, to preparing Robbie’s rehab floor for next season. The penguins are changing their behaviour – no longer socializing on their way home from fishing, rather they are landing in ones and twos and heading home straight away.

Hiltrun and Elke came up on Saturday and Elaine joined us as well. They trimmed trees and blocked off cliff tops to make monitoring safer and easier. I have begun constructing the fence to keep the sheep off the new trees. We are ready for the new season. We hope that our Malaria work has turned the tide and our nest numbers increase from the 38 of last season.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
The days are getting longer, and we are responding by ticking jobs off the list. Tree planting has slowed down until we can access the south end of the Moeraki colony when the stock have finished their winter grazing and we can drive to the fence. No prizes for doing things the hard way.

​The weather was spring-like, and Kowhai and Clematis are in bud, about to flower at any time. That all changed on Thursday when we all got wet doing the rounds in the morning. The paddock was very slippery, so I was not keen to drive there again in the afternoon.

​Therefore, I took the photographer down the hill here for his magazine article. Cathy and Jon were visiting at the same time, so we were all treated to a display of penguins on the beach, one of which was a juvenile. On Friday I released the 2 girls from the hospital so am now down to one male in care. He is a bit slower to rally, but I will try to not rush him.

Hiltrun came up yesterday and once again we had the chance to watch penguins for a while. We watched one Juvenile chasing another – how amazing is that!
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​