Hello!

Winter has arrived since our last newsletter and the penguin season 2020 has begun. Penguins are busy picking partners, nest sites and preparing for their new chicks.

Here at the Trust, we have been preparing ourselves for the coming penguin breeding season too, sorting nest boxes, checking tracks on local beaches, digging pathways for our penguins where there has been significant erosion... the cameras have gone out too, ready to capture some great footage with any luck, providing an exciting opportunity to bring things to life for everyone.

We getting out to penguin colonies, and into our community and schools again. We have been getting ready for tracking and monitoring both blue and Fiordland crested penguins - look out for reports from our field work in the next newsletter - and schools have started some new projects for this season.

We have also said farewell to a long standing, much loved Trustee and wish him all the best.  Behind the scenes, we and have collaborated with different organisations and there's news of that below.

As we always mention, because it is the most important thing to remind our readers of and the community, people were very respectful over lockdown keeping their dogs under control in the spirit of social distancing, and this can only be good for penguins, so please keep this up as we move into penguin nesting time. Remember that penguins could be nesting in any areas of coastal vegetation so please keep your dogs on leads in those areas and under close control when walking on the beach. 

If you are heading over the hill this Winter, don't forget to try to find the penguins, scattered all around Christchurch too, what fun!  (Read on to find out more!)

Many thanks

Lucy

Education and Awareness Ranger

What has the Trust been up to for the last couple of months?

Farewell Leon, we wish you all the best

After many years as a Trustee of the West Cost Penguin Trust, Leon has stepped down from his role. It is time for Leon to put all his efforts into his predator control and conservation management program at Motukiekie, and many other projects he has in his sights. We thank you Leon for all your hours and support and passion you have given to the Trust and the people involved.

Photo: Leon receiving a parting gift - a totara - from founding trustee, Jill Cotton

Look out for our new sign

New signs alerting beach goers to the possible presence of wildlife are going up across the West Coast region. Led by the West Coast Penguin Trust, this initiative has the support of every District Council and local Department of Conservation teams. The wording and design of the new signs were developed collaboratively, and Westland Milk Products generously stepped in to pay for them.

The new signs ask people to keep themselves and their dogs at least 20 metres away from wildlife, whether it be penguins, seals, sea lions or other sea or shore birds such as banded dotterels and black-billed gulls. These are all endangered species and their survival relies on minimising disturbance.

This is a huge step forward for awareness of wildlife protection and dog control issues on our West Coast beaches and 'joined up thinking'.

Read more here.

Photo shows, from left, DOC Ranger - Antje Wahlberg, Westland DC's Te Aroha Cook and Mike Newport, and the Trust's Manager, Inger Perkins.

What has Lucy the education ranger been up to since the last newsletter?

Lucy and schools rejoiced that lockdown was over and they could jump back into their fun penguin learning and projects they were all so keen to start at the beginning of the year.

Paroa School enjoyed a day learning about penguins and planning the action they would take before the year is up. This term they have introduced a new behaviour management strategy using blue penguin tokens for certain behaviour, so the students were excited to share that new system with Lucy and she even earned a token from her visit!

And let's not forget the mascot and logo of Paroa School is the kororā!

Jade Blackman moved schools from St Patrick's Primary School to Barrytown School and the students there are lucky enough to embark on a penguin journey with a very experienced penguin ranger, Mr Blackman. Perhaps some of you avid readers will remember all the fantastic work Mr Blackman's class has been doing over the last two years, with nest box building and community beach days.

Watch this space! The schools students are back in action!

Barrytown School have been learning about the adaptations of New Zealand birds and why not pick the blue penguin

Some fantastic drawings of kororā done by Barrytown School as they learn about the adaptations

Paroa School have adopted a new behaviour management strategy this term and the students are given tokens for good behaviour with their mascot on it, the blue penguin

Paroa School enjoyed learning about kororā in a fun classroom session with Lucy this month

Some thank yous ...

With a growing education programme and with an update and reprint of our education resource needed, we have been very fortunate to receive funding for the programme as as whole from the West Coast Community Trust, the Sargood Bequest, DOC's Community Fund and the Community Organisation Grants Scheme, and for the re-print of the resource from Pub Charity and the Bill Blackadder Trust.  This programme is truly valued by the schools, teachers, children and their communities that we reach - a huge thank you for this essential support.

Upcoming events to look forward to ...

Something fun for the diary

Come join us at this event, to celebrate our nature and tell stories:

"Putting Nature on the Map" - Sunday 23rd August,11am-4pm, Greymouth High School hall.

Great for families and in fact for everyone - come and see us there as we tell stories about NZ penguins!

Forest & Bird and the junior Kiwi Conservation Club invite you to see the South Island / Te Wai Pounamu as you've never seen before… a giant floor map so big it will fill the school hall!

Follow the great rivers from source to sea.

Find and discover our National Parks.

Climb the mountains of the Southern Alps.

Go on a journey of discovery with local storytellers (including us!).

Complete a nature adventure challenge with prizes for under 12s.

Connect with West Coast conservation, restoration and outdoor recreational groups.

This is a free drop-in event. All are welcome.

Map is shoes-off so wear your favourite socks :)

For more information, contact westcoast@kcc.org.nz

Penguin sculptures arrive in Christchurch for new art trail

A waddle* of penguins has flown into Christchurch to be decorated by school children and artists and installed on city streets.

Read about it here.

*Yes, it seems that the collective noun for a group of penguins on land really is a waddle!  A group of penguins in the water is called a 'raft', a group of penguins on land is called a 'waddle' and other collective nouns for penguins apparently include rookery, colony, and huddle.

An exciting new children's book by a local penguin lover....

Jeannette Good has written and illustrated a children's picture book called 'A Little Blue'. It is set in Charleston on the West Coast and features the kororā. Jeannette has been lucky enough to be living amongst the Charleston kororā for the past 12 years and is now sharing her love for these special birds.

This wonderful little children's book will be available in a couple of months - we'll keep you posted!

Look up Jeannette's page on facebook here for more details.

Photo shows an advance copy of the book held by Jeanette.

Some extra things to note...

Do you know where your cat roams?

We all know that dogs and cars are the biggest threats to penguins on the West Coast, but did you know that cats are a problem for penguins too? Cats have been known to kill penguins and of course other birds. It is much easier to control dogs than it is cats with fencing and leads, but, as we know, cats naturally like to roam. There is always a lot of discussion on to how to solve this problem. Rebekah White from NZ Geographic touched on the topic of cats' habits and roaming last month. 

Read the short article here.

And read more about the study in this article from the National Geographic.

Just to make you smile on a Friday ...

Be a penguin conservation champion

If you are one of those wonderful folk who have supported us for a while or who responded to our call for new supporters recently, a huge and heartfelt thank you!  We are enormously grateful for your confidence in us and your donations ensure that penguins are being protected through a variety of projects. 

To our other readers, we know not everyone will be in the position of being able to support us in this way, and we will continue to value and cherish your support in any way, for example promoting us and promoting, leading and encouraging penguin friendly behaviour, and of course donations if and when you can. 

We know you are all already supporters of the Trust and our work, and if you would like to start a regular donation, we have created a new donor programme to make it easier to help. And we need your help more than ever, as grants and donations from other Trusts are increasingly hard to come by (despite some success for our education programme recently!). 

Regular donations are the lifeblood of a Trust like ours and we're appealing to those of you who can to start one today.  

Please choose either a simple annual donation of $50 here    

or any amount fortnightly, monthly or annually here.

We'll offer a new reward each year for all our existing and new Supporters, and of course keep you in touch with all our news. 

We look forward to welcoming you as a Trust Supporter.  Thank you.

Inger and the team at West Coast Penguin Trust.

Coming soon:

• An update on how our penguins are going this season
• Updates on what the Trust team have been up to
• Working with the New Zealand Penguin Initiative
• Collaborating with a film-making student
• More events and education stories
• And much more.....

Follow us on Facebook and Vimeo and find out more on our website

West Coast Penguin Trust

info@bluepenguin.org.nz  |  www.bluepenguin.org.nz

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