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Happy Belated New Year! Hari tau hou!
We would like to wish our wonderful supporters a belated Happy New Year 2024 and share the latest news from our team. Our team is often scattered far and wide, so we meet every three months to catch up, plan ahead, relay news and findings. Our last meeting in late February was our round-up for the 2023 season, so I have lots of interesting updates to share. Did you see any penguins on your travels or days at the beach over the summer? We would love to hear about them and we hope you had a great summer, with or without penguins.
In the penguin world, chicks have fledged and embarked on their first big adventure out to sea, (unless they took a wrong turn and ended up at the airport....story below), penguin parents fattened up and most will have completed their annual two week moult and will probably be spending some time out at sea. The big question is where do they go before the next breeding season and why? Penguin research is being carried out around New Zealand to answer questions like these and more.
We hope to extend our foraging study next season to discover where our local little penguins forage across more of the breeding season, including how far out they go, the distance they travel, the depths and the frequency of dives. We will report throughout the year our findings and in this newsletter we will give you a look at some of the discoveries from our study last season. We also have some exciting feedback from our rangers, from the field, Haast area, Gorge River, Charleston area, Camerons Beach, Cape Foulwind, reporting on our 2023 season. We are always so grateful for the support we get from the community, schools, families, local businesses and others. We survive and keep protecting our local penguins and seabirds on the funds donated to us, and grants and the time and support given, so do please keep supporting if you can. Every little counts and our match-funding opportunity goes for a few more weeks - you can help us reach our target of $5,000 so that $10,000 can be put to good work for penguin conservation here on the coast this winter.
Thank you again for your interest and generous support in 2023. We wish you all a very happy and healthy 2024. Lucy Waller Education & Awareness Ranger, West Coast Penguin Trust |
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Gorge River tawaki have a good El Niño breeding season much to our surprise
The last big El Niño year was a disaster in the tawaki colonies, with most chicks starving to death, hence we were all anxious going into this season knowing it was another one, however it was an entirely different story this year.
Catherine reports good news from her season at Gorge River.! Read Catherine's report here |
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| Jackson Head and Knight's Point tawaki also had a good season
A similar story to Gorge River at our two other tawaki sites on the West Coast, with 3 nests in each colony successfully raising 2 chicks. Ranger, Sarah Kivi, reports her findings at these two sites this year.
Read Sarah's report here |
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An average season for kororā this year on the West Coast We have monitored six little blue penguin colonies this season, two fortnightly and the rest twice in the season. Breeding success was better than the La Niña and marine heatwave affected season of 2022, but not as good as some. Read Lucy's report here |
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Where do the kororā of Camerons Beach forage?
Following on from previous years of small foraging studies in the Charleston area, this season we carried out a pilot study at Camerons Beach, tracking the foraging paths of three blue penguins at chick guard stage, over four days. We plan to carry out a more extensive study this coming season.
We hope this will give us a greater insight into the foraging areas and patterns of our local penguins and the conditions they encounter.
Find out more about this project and why these studies are important for penguin conservation here |
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Chair and Tawaki Ranger, Robin Long, has been on an expedition to the Subantarctic islands with The Tawaki Project
"Two islands, different story. On 31 January, Erect-crested penguin chicks on the Bounty Islands were almost all still downy fluff balls that had at least another 3-4 weeks until they were ready to fledge. On the Antipodes, one week earlier, a lot of the penguin chicks were almost ready to leave. This apparent difference in timing of breeding is likely another puzzle piece that we need to understand, why penguins are doing better on the Bounties."
Find Robin's photos to illustrate this here, and the further adventures of The Tawaki Project here on facebook
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Conservation class at Westland High School helping local penguins Deputy Principal at Westland High School, Peter Brailsford, has led a conservation class in recent years and last year the Trust was lucky enough to receive their help in building new nest boxes and designing a ramp system to combat the erosion access problem. A big thank you to Peter for leading the way in penguin conservation and awareness with a difference.
Read more about the project here |
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Other news from the Trust |
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| Just a few weeks to meet our target!
We are just $1500 away from our target of $5000 so that our very generous Supporter will match it, bringing a wonderful and much needed $10,000 to support our penguin projects in 2024.
You can help us reach our target with a donation, small or large, and feel the joy of giving!
Find out more here
(Or jump straight to our donations page here) |
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Bequests in advance!
As we reported in January, we have paired with Gathered Here to offer you a free online will writing service.
If you have yet to write your will, this is a wonderfully simple way to get it done and there's no need or expectation that you would include our or any charitable trust.
If you were inclined to include the Trust in your will, rather than waiting for maybe decades, you may also like to do something now. For example, you could consider providing interest income on a bequest sum to the Trust now. The beauty of this is that you enjoy the
connection to and appreciation from the Trust that the on-going gift offers and at the same time can be kept informed of programmes that are directly benefitting from your gift. Something to think about and please get in touch if you'd like to have a chat about it.
Email us here
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In other penguinny news ... |
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West Coast Seaweek photo competition
Calling all West Coast residents! In support of Seaweek 2024, kaupapa moana, submit a photo to DOC showing how you celebrate sea creatures of Aotearoa.
This could be anything from observing them, learning about them, or taking action to protect them. Sea creatures could include sea birds, shells, marine mammals, and more. Entries close 5 April 2024 at 4:30 pm. Find out more here |
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Penguin on runway delays flights at Wellington Airport
"They're renowned for being the world's smallest penguin species, less known for their ability to fly, but that didn't stop a blue penguin (kororā) from storming the runway at Wellington Airport earlier this month."
This chap looks like a roaming chick ready to fledge. If you look closely at the photos you can see they still have a little chick down, on their shoulders, left to shed. I wonder where they were heading?
Read the story here |
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Oamaru blue penguin live nest cam
The Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony team have a live nest cam currently showing a couple of little penguins, one about to moult, the other almost finished. They are lying in a feather lined nest!
Watch them here |
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And a big New Year THANK YOU to all our supporters, donors, volunteers and the community for all your support last year.
We look forward to another great year with your support! We really really appreciate you! |
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Don't forget to follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with all the important and fun local penguin news! And remember our website also has all the latest news, up-to-date information about the Trust, our projects and much more!
We are always so grateful for the support we get from community, schools, families, local business and others. We survive and keep protecting our local penguins purely on the funds we are donated, so do please keep giving if you can. And stay connected and keep in touch .... www.westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz/ |
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| ON A NEED TO KNOW BASIS ...
Hopefully you will never need this, but just in case, we're including the DOC hotline so that it's handy if you come across an injured penguin or any sick or injured wildlife that seems to be struggling whilst out there on the beach, river mouths or roads: 0800 DOCHOT (362 468), and again, do all you can to ensure sick or injured wildlife are safe from dogs.
Also, if you see or hear about a dead penguin, please let us know using our simple reporting form, ideally with a photograph and clear description of the location. If you can have a look and it's obvious or apparent, your thoughts on possible cause of death would be very helpful. We can then add the information to our database - which informs our conservation actions.
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Coming soon: - We'll be planning for the 2024 season
- Schools will be including penguins in their lessons
- More penguin news from around the world
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Follow us on Facebook and Vimeo and find out more on our website |
West Coast Penguin Trust info@westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz | www.westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz If you'd rather not receive emails from us, unsubscribe here. |
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