You can help us safeguard the future of the blue penguin (kororā) and the Fiordland crested penguin (tawaki); all it takes is a small donation.
Hello,
We aim to share our newsletters on the first Friday of alternate months. It never ceases to amaze me how much there is to tell you after just a couple of months and this newsletter is no exception.
The match funding campaign has been a huge success and we're indebted to those who initiated and responded to it - thank you so much.
The ANZ Staff Foundation have also responded very generously to our grant application to support our growing education programme, and Education Ranger, Lucy Waller, shared the story of the programme at the recent biennial Oamaru Penguin Symposium to plenty of appreciation and interest.
A year ago, despite the nervousness around the relatively new COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and general uncertainties, we launched our 'Supporter' campaign, inviting you to make an annual donation of $50. We now have 30 Supporters and we drew one of them for a wonderful prize recently. There will be a new prize for next year and, in the meantime, if you're not yet a Supporter and would like to be, please find out more and join here.
Find these and other stories, including updates on the 2020 breeding season, new technology for the coming breeding season, a hint of how penguins find their way home, and Queen's Birthday penguin honours, below.
We can't say this often enough, so here it is again. If you see an injured penguin or any wildlife that seems to be struggling, please call DOC for assistance on the hotline, 0800 DOCHOT (362 468) and do all you can to ensure it is safe from dogs. If you see or hear about a dead penguin, please let us know so that we can add it to our database - which informs conservation actions.
Read on for all our news, thank you for your interest and support, and why not forward this newsletter to a friend!
Inger
Manager
(Lucy is busy finalising the second edition of our Education Resource)
Wire loop means we will learn so much more about blue penguins
Following the Oamaru Penguin Symposium in May, our Ranger and Trust Chair discussed upgrading our blue penguin monitoring programme with the NZ Penguin Initiative team, ensuring that our approach is the best it can be and consistent with their new standards.
The Trust has agreed to invest in a loop structure at a confined access point where around 23 pairs penguins come and go, walking under or over the wire. The loop will read the tags or microchips in the penguins so that we can learn about survival, nest fidelity, breeding partners and success, recruitment to site, time at sea and ashore and much more. Full report on this exciting new project next time.
$5,336.92 has become $10,673.84!
A huge thank you to all of you who stepped up to our match funding challenge and made donations between February and May. Our very generous donor who prompted this campaign offered to match up to $3,000, but when your interest and support was so evident, that support has been matched in full for the donations during that period.
Special thanks goes to Catherine Stewart for busily creating gorgeous penguin beanies and raising funds for penguin conservation and to Havelock North Intermediate School who ran a bake sale!
Our very grateful thanks all round.
Better year for blue penguins
Trust Ranger, Matt Charteris, reports that 2020 was a good breeding year for blue penguins on the Buller Coast. Breeding data supports short foraging trips observed through gps tracking, suggesting that food was not a limiting factor for the 2020 season.
Read more here
Stoat threat didn't eventuate for tawaki
The mega beech mast in Autumn 2019 was expected to lead to an explosion of stoat numbers by the 2020 tawaki breeding season last August/September. The Trust put extra effort into understanding the situation and we were relieved that no predation was recorded.
Read more here.
Terrific Taiko festival
Westland petrel (taiko) expert, Kerry-Jayne Wilson, led a guided walk to watch petrels coming in at dusk, and then told the concert goers all about this special bird. In addition, Suzanne Hills of the Kiwi Conservation Club led children's activities, with the support of DOC Ranger Sierra Jones. Children and families had lots of fun while learning all about taiko. And the Trust had its trusty market stall there too. Despite a bit of rain, everyone had heaps of fun and the concert was a blast!
Have a look at some more photos here.
ANZ Staff Foundation supports penguin education programme
We were thrilled to hear that the ANZ Staff Foundation had approved our grant application to support our education programme recently. The grant covers approximately 40% of the cost of the programme for a year and ensures that we can continue to use penguins to introduce nature and conservation to West Coast children.
Find out more here
Urban penguin cam goes live in Wellington
If you missed this in the news recently, two high resolution cameras and an external microphone have been installed in a little blue penguin nest box in Evans Bay, Wellington to give everyone the chance to be a naturalist from the comfort of their own device.
Read more here
and find the live link here
How do penguins find their way home?
This fascinating question remains largely unknown, but there has been some research and we believe they use multiple cues. This question came up as we update our education resource.
Find out what we learned about penguin navigation here
Winner of our Supporter prize draw
We said that "every Supporter will go into an annual draw for a very special reward and the first one will take place for the first 30 new Supporters". I'm delighted to report that we reached 30 recently and, using a random number generator, one of the Supporters was selected for the first reward, a stunning framed print from our Patron, Craig Potton and the Craig Potton Gallery. Christine Stet of Hokitika was the very lucky winner!
Birthday Honours for Penguin heroes
Lala Frazer, founding Trustee of the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, Hoani Langsbury, another YEPT Trustee and a key player in blue penguin and albatross conservation at Tairoa Head/Pilots Beach, and Shireen and Francis Helps of Pohatu Penguins on Banks Peninsula have been recognised for their conservation efforts with Queen's Birthday honours.
Find out more here
World Albatross Day
This year, the theme was "Ensuring albatross-friendly fisheries". It's a well known and appalling fact that thousands of albatrosses are dying every year as a result of fishing operations.
Solutions are available to address this conservation crisis and some are in use by New Zealand operators.
Find out how you can help and more including resources and a quiz here
Keeping our Vision and Strategy up to date
The Trust regularly reviews the focus for our work - first of all why we do what we do and then what that looks like in practice. At our last Trustee meeting in May, we took time to do that, prompting useful discussion and new ideas. We'll be putting more work into our Vision and areas for focus and will report back soon, but I wanted to share (a) that this work goes on in the background and (b) that, when we meet, we ensure we have zoom capability. For this meeting, led by Trustee Zoe Watson, Kerry-Jayne Wilson zoomed in from Charleston and Robin Long from Dunedin.
Have you spotted our new signs around?
If you think there is a beach access on the West Coast that needs one of these signs, please let us know. Email us here.
Coming soon:
- The start of the 2021 breeding season and getting to grips with new technology to monitor blue penguins
- Penguin ramps to help penguins over sand dune erosion faces
- Brand new Education Resource book - second edition
- More updates on what the Trust team have been up to
- And much more.....
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
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