Penguins Day 4 - Thursday 9th May

Our first task this morning was measuring and weighing chicks. We were advised to wear old clothes, and were issued with gloves … We split into small groups, which meant that I was 1:1 with Leanne and we took a route from the other side of harbour in the area around NPR.  It was exhausting work but really great to get hands on and up close to the chicks.  This involved crawling through the bushes, distracting the parent (if present), and grabbing the chick(s). If there were two chicks, they had to be taken together and put back together so that the parent did not get confused. We had to be careful putting them back, so that the chick was close enough to the nest to make it back. If there were other adults nearby, they could attack them. Also, the parent could attack them, and I did have to intervene on one until they had settled down.

I got pecked, bitten, clawed and pooped on but it was worth it. The smallest chicks we measured were P2s.  They fur on the body was really soft and downy, just like a fluffy toy. The down on their flippers was equally soft but shorter and like velvet.  They were quite easy to handle, and generally well behaved. The older, larger P4s (blues) were much harder. They were almost fully grown, had a wicked bite, and some did not want to cooperate at all.  Having to handle two at once was quite a handful.  The chicks were spray painted blue or green to indicate which was first born (one egg hatches a day or two before the second). However, the chicks can overtake one another in terms of development, for example one may get preferential feeding from the parents, so the colour coding helps keep track of which chick is which.

It was a long morning. We set off at 8:30am and didn’t get back to the house until 1pm, having trekked through the brush in warm weather. On route, we saw a mole snake and some awesome spiders, both of which I avoided.

In the afternoon we just did a short task – a census walk. The involved covering a smallish area as a group, walking in a line in a search pattern and recording all the nests we found – whether active, abandoned or potential. This gives an idea of the overall population size, as not all nests are studied on the nest rounds, and only a small proportion are measured/weighed.

For the last couple of hours we made nest boxes. These are triangular penguin huts made out of wooden struts and a plywood walls.  The design works as they are being habited, though they can get warm in summer.  We managed to make 11 between us, before it started to get too cold and dark and hard on the knees.

We had a braai in the evening, with grilled sausage, ribs, corn and butternut squash followed by marshmallows and chocolate. A nice end to our toughest day yet.