It’s the West Coast Annual Blue Penguin Count time again folks, so grab your gummies and your penguin tracks form or better still, your phone with the i-Naturalist app downloaded onto it and start counting tracks!
An early morning walk in the spring, the week of Monday 12th – Saturday 17th September, will help you rediscover the beauty of your local coastline, discover whether penguins are using the beach and help us build a clearer picture of where blue penguins are on the West Coast.
We have selected these dates when the tide will be low early in the morning to keep you safe and to offer the best chance of seeing penguin tracks crossing the freshly washed sand. You can add your observations any time, but always pay special attention to tide times and conditions.
Read the details here.
A little history behind the Great Annual West Coast Blue Penguin Count:
Little Penguin populations on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand were surveyed and partially counted for the first time in late 2005/early 2006. Motivated by anecdotal information suggesting a decline in Little Penguin populations along the West Coast. this on-foot survey has been the foundation for Little Penguin research and the establishment of regular monitoring schemes. The West Coast Penguin Trust undertook the survey in its first year and has since been documenting factors that influence Little Penguin population growth such as threats, breeding habitat, breeding biology and foraging distance at sea during breeding seasons on the West Coast.
Your help is extremely valuable, thank you.
While materials were chosen that would stand up to the harsh coastal conditions, those same coastal conditions are conducive to plant growth! Occasional checks of the fences have been carried out by volunteers and rangers so that any maintenance needs can be identified and remedied. The never-ending need for maintenance is managing the vegetation that can grow through the fence, for example gorse, blackberry and hydrangea, pushing it to breaking point in places, or flop over causing damage from the weight of rank grass, rushes and weeds such as montbretia.
Volunteers recently spent a few hours tidying up the main fence along Woodpecker Bay north of Punakaiki so a big shout out to them - thank you Fiona, Jony, Reef, Katrina, Mandy, Marty, Teresa and Deb! Flax had been pressing down on the fence, but now the fence has been freed up by these wonderful volunteers - and they picked up a fair bit of rubbish too.
Volunteer Natassja Savidge has offered to check and help maintain the Hokitika penguin protection fence and joined Ranger Lucy Waller and Manager Inger Perkins in May to inspect the length of the fence. Some minor issues were found but the main finding was the extent of the vegetation growth that was damaging the fence in places. Big thanks to Natassja!
