​Hello friends and family
The disastrous start to the week finally righted itself when the salmon smolt arrived. We used over 180 Kgs of borrowed fish to tide us over and had run out when the truck arrived. I ordered more on Wednesday!

​By Wednesday we had 76 penguins in care; 48 Yellow-eyed penguin chicks, 13 Juveniles and 8 adults. They were kept company by 3 Fiordland Crested, 1 Erect Crested, a Little Penguin and 2 White Flippered penguins.

​On Thursday we began the great emigration. 11 chicks were taken to soft release. Their heads were measured, and we took 5 girls and 5 boys to soft release and one with a head measurement in the middle. These were the oldest chicks. They will stay there for a week being fed once a day; the door will be opened, and they will fledge off into the ocean for several months. What a milestone! It was a busy day. We had the Hui in the morning and then took blood from 5 penguins that Elaine tested. Jan and Anne did the trap rounds, catching 3 predators and rebaiting the traps at the Moeraki colony. They rescued 3 penguins, one with foot injuries and 2 with feather damage. 

​We did the rounds again on Saturday and found 3 large penguins that were left to moult in the wild and one underweight juvenile. The chicks have settled into the soft release pen and are easy to feed. (so far!) Our trial of the portable soft release pen has been a great success and so we will be able to put chicks in there next week. We do still have 76 penguins in care as the first crested has been released.

Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friend and family.
Monday was another red-letter day as we welcomed sponsorship from L J Hooker, Oamaru and an Erect Crested Penguin, a White-flippered fledgling and Amy from Kelly Tarlton’s in Auckland. Amy works with penguins at Kelly’s and has come down here in her holidays to work with wild penguins. She has much to share and we are so happy to have her helping us for this week.

​It was also special because we got a phone call from DOC in Dunedin offering help and support. Our decision to bring in the chicks was questioned which is exactly as it should be. We did not take the decision lightly and welcome debate. How else can we all learn! On Tuesday the trapped ferret count was up to 11. Case closed.

​The rest of the week was very busy, with 5 penguins coming in on Thursday and no fish delivery on Friday. I had waited 8 days already for more fish and had to ask Penguin Place, once again to help tide us over. Thank goodness for their support and generosity. They provided us with 150kg of penguin fish which will hopefully see us through until the salmon smooth arrives.

​Needless to say, by yesterday I was in a right tizzy! So much so, I managed to flood the house by leaving the tap on in the bath where I was trying to defrost fish – all the while a gale was blowing!
The team stepped up in great style and all penguins are fed and content. I will have to wear my crocs up the hall for a few days.

Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
Last Sunday was another glorious hot day and I took Daniel to the bus stop after lunch. He was a great help and left with the list of jobs back to a manageable size! On Monday morning Michelle and Charlie did their last feed before their holiday. They have been a great help, and fun as well. Anne joined our working bee on Tuesday, and we showed her the way we do beach searching and hope she will keep an eye on the Moeraki beaches.

​I went to town on Wednesday and noticed how dry North Otago was looking. On Wednesday night we got 7 mm of rain and I swear the place greened up a bit. It meant the penguins did not need a clean on Thursday morning so Jan, Robbie, Anne and I were able to get onto the rounds and then start on the upgrade of the soft release pens. We found 3 more trapped ferrets and picked up 3 underweight adult YEPs with feather damage.

​During the week we got the results of our last round of blood tests back and the Fiordland Crested penguin has a blood infection called Leucocytozoon. This is transmitted by sandflies. After consultation with Ralph, the international vet expert, we are trialling a course of Malarone which has had some success in parrots. Most Fiordland Crested penguins have this disease and it is only of concern when they are stressed by moulting or starvation – our penguin has both.

Monday was a red-letter day – not only Gavin’s birthday, but the day I signed up for a new house on the Hampden section. It means that I will have to do some work there to knock the section into shape. It will be a wonderful home and I will rent it out for the foreseeable future. I have been surprized at how quickly Genius Homes have got on with the job – the permit is already lodged with the Council and I can follow progress through an online app.
Elaine came out yesterday and we did the rounds, picking up a juvenile heading into the moult. He was rescued as a chick from the Catlins and has survived!
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
This time of the year we get lots of visitors. Most of them are friends, or friends of friends and so I have to be a bit social, and drink lots of tea and let jobs slide. Urgent jobs are always done – like feeding and cleaning, but some jobs I just delegate to the rest of the team. I have been particularly lucky with the two Daniels who step up graciously to all sorts of tasks – leaving me to be the hostess.

​Young Daniel went home on Wednesday, leaving the other Daniel fully trained in penguin chick feeding. I have not had to feed them all on my own yet, but it will be easy as they are all now trained to feed from the hand. We have 58 penguins in care and can feed then prepare the next meal with two people in under an hour.

​As well as feeding and cleaning, we test the penguin’s blood for Malaria and found the last chick that we brought in has Malaria. We have a Fiordland Crested Penguin with a bacterial infection and a White Flippered penguin that has very poor feather quality. We have added our trapping lines to the NZ Trap web site and can now record catches straight into our phones in the field. This is my idea of excellent – single data entry.

Last night Daniel and I went to Elaine’s Karaoke party. It was a lot of fun and I am a bit slow this morning!
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
Life is busy with just routine tasks. On Monday the TV3 reporters came and, interestingly, they had done some research beforehand and so the whole thing went smoothly.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/01/otago-sanctuary-takes-action-to-save-yellow-eyed-penguin-population.html
On Tuesday a new volunteer, Nicky from Palmerston came out for a look around. She will be doing beach searches near her home which is just great. I put the truck in for its warrant of fitness and it failed – I need a new windscreen. Jan and Robbie came out to re-bait the traps and we caught our 4th ferret.

​Big Daniel arrived on Wednesday and little Daniel went off to visit friends in Karatane. Robbie came out on Thursday and he had a crack at some of the thistles while I watered the ferns. Big Daniel weed-eated the paths for the penguins.

​Friday was the day that a team came up from Dunedin to help weigh all the chicks and train up Robbie and Jan for micro-chipping. What a treat for us to have these penguin people visit. The chicks are all doing well – the heaviest over 6 Kg and the lightest around 5. They are getting better every day and feeding them is now fun.

On Saturday one of our Penguin Rescue members came down from Christchurch with a group of young Chinese women who helped by weeding at the Moeraki Colony. We got the 6th ferret and brought the last of the chicks in from the wild. It had stopped gaining weight and its parent was no longer closely guarding it, so in it came. We also got an unmarked Juvenile that is feeding from the hand. Maybe it had a band that fell off. I was also able to read about the autopsy report for our chicks in the media.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/north-otago/ferret-main-suspect-killing-penguin-chicks
Sometimes it is a bit like riding a roller coaster!
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
We are busy shuffling fish from the freezer, to the laundry, to containers and then into penguins. The extreme weather that we have had means it is a challenge to get the fish defrosted in the serious quantities required. 

​The American group from Lee McRae college who are studying wildlife rehabilitation visited on Sunday, but the weather was too bad to do anything outside. They came back for the day on Monday and protected cabbage trees in the morning and cleaned penguin pens in the afternoon. Their vet, Lee spent the day with us on Tuesday and we talked a lot about feathers. In flying birds, the shafts of the feathers tell the story of the bird’s health. We think that the state of our penguin feathers currently reflects their health when they grew the feathers for their last moult. The starvation event last year is showing up as degraded feathers now. We will be extra vigilant in our monitoring.

​On Tuesday we did the rounds and again on Thursday. We weighed the chick still in the colony and it is now 2.5 Kg – double its weight last time. I have released the two adult males and will keep the rest (5) until they moult. We have done running repairs on the enclosures and went to town on Friday.

On Saturday, Daniel and I walked the coast with Elaine and then Daniel went fishing while I put supers on the bees. Then we went to the Tavern for tea to celebrate Daniel doing so well at school last year. Dinner was Yum!
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
I wish you all the best for the next year and the next decade.
Onwards and upwards! This is the decade in which we save Yellow-eyed penguins (and other iconic New Zealand species) from the brink of extinction – one penguin at a time if necessary. 

​Last Sunday, with 2 chicks predated and 3 missing, we made the call to uplift all the rest and keep them safe from predation and Malaria until they fledge which will be early February. The youngest one is still being protected by its parents, so it is still in the colony. The decision was difficult, but once made, straight forward to implement. We have since been advised by a predator control expert and have caught 2 ferrets and Joe shot a cat. We have had reports of other predators in the colony so know that we made the best decision.

​Either Jan or Robbie have been coming for every feed, so it has been okay. By Wednesday the first of the chicks were feeding from the hand, and so they are settling as well as can be expected. Michelle and Charlie joined the feeding team on Friday so that spreads the load.

ON Saturday the team assembled to microchip the 48 penguin chicks and screen them for malaria. It took the whole day and I was the only one who left early as I picked Daniel up from the airport. What an achievement. Most of the chicks had put on about a kilogram so they are doing well.
Have a great week!
Rosalie
​

​Hello friends and family
These are challenging times for penguins. 10 years ago we had 46 Yellow-eyed penguin nests here at Moeraki and now we are down to 38. The mainland-based population 10 years ago was around 600 nests and now it is 155. 

 ​Of those 38 nests here, 5 have failed. One failed at the incubation stage – the female disappeared, and the male was forced to abandon the eggs, one at the brooding stage when the female disappeared, and the chicks died of starvation. One lost their chick last week, maybe to predation and we brought in the male and 2 chicks from another nest on Tuesday. The chicks weighed only 90% of what they should, and the male is a wreck. On Thursday we found a predated chick so brought the sibling into safety.

​Our response to the chicks dying of starvation was to weigh every chick once a week so that we can detect when they stop thriving sooner. This is not a task that I would take on single handed and is only possible because of the awesome team we have here. 50 sets of very sharp claws can be daunting.

Our response to the predation is to put live traps in the reserve – we have no other options available to us. Our regular trap line is monitored weekly and we regularly change the baits. Yesterday we found another predated chick. If they continue to die, we will bring in the post-guard ones that rely on camouflage to survive – it is not working for them. The tough thing for them is that there is no going back to the parents – they will have to fledge from here.
Let’s all hope that the next decade brings recovery to the penguins and health and happiness to us all!
Have a great week
Rosalie
​