Our fortnightly monitoring has continued this year at our little / blue penguin Charleston colony and a couple of checks a season for our other sites, Whitehorse Bay, Bullock Creek, Punakaiki River and Joyce Bay.
It has been a late start for the Nile River colony, with some eggs laid in August, as reported to you all in the last newsletter, but then sadly abandoned by the next check. Now we have a mixture of incubating birds, new chicks and even post-guard chicks (when both adults leave the chicks to forage for food).
Last year’s breeding success was low, probably due to the extreme marine heatwaves brought about by La Niña conditions, and now, with a new El Niño fully established, we are watching carefully to see what effects it may have on this year’s season.
Further south, at Camerons Beach south of Greymouth, we have a similar story, but with more chicks just entering the post-guard stage.
We will continue our monitoring efforts for the rest of the season and by the Christmas newsletter we should have some more news, hopefully of most chicks having fledged by then.
Our monitoring efforts are a mixture of looking in nest boxes to searching with a burrowscope into rocky burrows, tree roots and bushes. We are always on the lookout for signs of penguins as we move through the bush, including poo, smells, tidying up of entrances, scratch marks and other common signs.
Watch this space for the latest news at Christmas…..
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!
