NFOBB: New Friends of Bushy Beach.

As dire weather was predicted for the afternoon after I fed the 2 Yellow-eyed Penguin chicks in care I went off and walked from Kakanui to the Waianakarua river mouth. For the first time since I started doing this walk I managed to stay on the beach and rocks around the red house then through under the bridge. It was a lovely though fast paced walk. Sue picked me up and delivered me back to my truck which I drove down to Bushy Beach then walked to OBPC. Back at home Sue took the 2 Little Blue Penguins, that Steph brought to us last week, down to the OBPC where they were banded and popped into a box. They will probably go out to sea in the morning with the crowd. Although she said goodbye to 2 Blues Sue picked up another orphaned chick. This one, Fin (it would have been the end for it if we hadn’t taken it), is a big ask as it only weighs 480 gms so it’s chances of making it aren’t high but as usual we will give it our best. Beach; I managed to walk the beach in the afternoon just before the windy weather arrived. I went down for the evening watch and saw that there was a penguin standing by the viewing platform already. Another was standing on the beach and I saw 1 come in from the sea however I abandoned my watch due to the dreadful wind and rain. At home we have regressed again and are back feeding a Little Blue chick on the dining table  using  an icing syringe.

Sue did the Blues feeding a little early this morning as she was of to Dunedin for part 43 of “The Pinkie that couldn’t” story, she is to get another surgery next week. I fed the YEP chicks after weighing and taking temps then gave them a swim. I went and delivered the weekly reports then walked from OBPC to Bushy Beach and back again.  Beach; I arrived at Bushy Beach this afternoon just in time to witness an altercation between two local lads and a tourist. Apparently the locals had been having a bit of fun at the expense of the Fur Seals on the beach, just as well the seals have thick skins eh? The tourist asked the lads to behave and was treated to much verbal abuse which escalated to them throwing stones at the tourist and his partner. I arrived just in time to hear one gem shouted from the yobs; “go f**k off back to your own country, these are our animals and we can do what we like with them”. (Ok FEF 679!) Sort of sums it up eh? I also notice that in response to our complaints about the refuse bin not being emptied regularly the powers that be have found the solution; they have removed the bin. Oh dear how silly is that. Beach later; A much better evening tonight with penguin arrivals spread equally over the shift. There was always a penguin in view somewhere in the bushes or on the beach. A total of 10 Yellow-eyed Penguins came in during my 3 hour watch watched by a smaller crowd of only 110 visitors. Great to meet up with Michael & Christie from Brisbane back again to enjoy the Bushy Beach experience. As always the viewing only got better as the evening progressed and when I left Liz was putting on her show at the viewing platform while others were singing their hearts out all over the bush as a couple of moulters went to sea for a drink. Wonderful stuff.

Sunday is clean pool day so that task took up a large chunk of my day. Low tide was just before 10am so I got to walk Bushy Beach then meander along to the OBPC where Sue picked me up. Back down on Bushy Beach at 2.30pm where I had a chat with some French tourists who had cleared the beach of Fur Seals by walking right up close to them taking photos, eventually even the most laid back seal gets pissed off and heaves out to sea. The tourists got the message when I invaded their personal space, they didn’t like it at all. Checked on Jan moulting in her chosen spot. Back home and finished off the pool then fed the Yellow-eyed Penguins while Sue took some photos. Then it was swim time, Seco still hates the water really strange as it has been so hot today one would think he would relish a cold swim. Sue took some snaps of the blues. Iny is looking very grown up with the fluff starting to come off his flippers already. Sue put a ribbon on one of the Stefs so she could tell them apart now that all the fluff is off both of them. Beach later; When I got down to Bushy Beach there were 3 Yellow-eyed Penguins on the beach already, I think 2 had just come out the water and 1 was on his way down for a drink. The weather went from hot to windy and cold and back again. When I had been on the beach earlier I saw 1 come in at 2.30pm plus a couple before I arrived in the evening. During the watch I only saw another 3 come in but I wasn’t surprised considering some are moulting plus the early arrivals. The moulter who normally stands under the dead cabbage tree decided to stand above it in full view of the path. This meant I spent the night trying to stop people climbing over the fence to get a good shot at the moulter, deterring flashers at platform, hide and path and generally running myself ragged achieving nothing really. At the end of the watch there was a beautiful sunset and Liz was close up to the platform. The serenity of the moment was totally spoiled by the arrival of a wedding party group, loud women, a few kids and then Holden man. A noisy drunk wannabe. Prat. They calmed and quietened when I showed them Liz standing 1 metre from the rails of the platform.  They left in the darkness and I after them.

After feeding the 2 Yellow-eyed Penguin chicks I was off down to Bushy Beach to walk along it and then along the shoreline to OBPC. On Bushy Beach there was a large flock of Shags on the sand and I also spotted a total of 3 penguins in the bush. The one pictured below is in full moult at the south end of the beach and after Sue played about with the image we managed to see that this is band no 19577. Known to us as Jan (Janice Jones brought it to us after finding it on the boat ramp at Kakanui) it was in our care from 29/4/09 to 8/06/09. Great to know that rehab works. Sue picked me up from OBPC then we had breakfast in town and went out and walked other beaches for a few hours. It’s getting very windy again and I believe severe gales are predicted this afternoon. Later; Well it was a strange day of weather beautiful and calm then a sudden change to high hot winds. Sue & I did the afternoon walk on the beach and met up with Lorraine Weston-Webb, she is a great fan of Bushy Beach and tells me she tries to make sure people behave while she is there, great.  We enjoyed our night off and were sitting enjoying a glass of wine in the spa when I got a call from Ralph (Bottom Bus) about two lads throwing stones at the shags at the south end of the beach. We move pretty quick when roused and I was soon having an exchange of views with two guys from Timaru. They left the beach. Thanks Ralph. (No-one available to do watch tonight.)

I had to drop the truck off in town so Sue came with the Nissan and gave me a lift from Gillies to OBPC. I walked from there to Bushy Beach, it was gorgeous at the beginning but bucketing with rain by the end. Sue had already fed Iny and so I fed the 2 Yellow-eyed Penguin chicks after weighing and taking temps. I left them together in the same enclosure and after some initial bickering they seem to have settled down. I drove Sue in for her hair appointment then came back to do some cleaning. Jason from OBPC phoned to tell me about a lady, Steph, who had uncovered a couple of Blues when they were clearing their building plot. Steph brought them round and we popped them in a box. Sue will weigh them and check them over, looks like one is just coming out of the moult and the other has finished moulting. Later; The Little Blues were both good weights so we won’t have them for long, they will probably go back to OBPC next week. We have called them Stefa and Stefm. Thanks to Steph for taking the trouble to save a couple of penguins, nice one.  It’s getting windy again. Beach; Walked the beach in high wind and saw 1 Yellow-eyed Penguin on the beach who dived into the bushes when he saw me. I also saw 1 come out the sea and cross to the bush, a real early bird. Afternoon feeding went ok although Seco still came straight out the water as soon as he was put in. However Rock has finally worked out how to get out unaided which will lessen the handling required. Beach later; An extremely cold and windy watch, strange to be back in double jackets, two hats and gloves after so many t-shirt watches. I saw 9 Yellow-eyed Penguins come in and counted 139 folk. Chatting was difficult due to the wind but I did enjoy Ernst & Elizabeth from Switzerland and later to returnees Terry & Liz from West Wales. The highlight of my watch, my day, my week, my month was meeting up with my 16 year-old girlfriend..Lonely Liz, 14394. I haven’t seen Liz for a couple of months and have been wondering if she was surviving but tonight she was on show in a brand new outfit. Smart or what! With only a fringe of old feathers round her tail she was looking great and as bold as ever. She thrilled the late stayers and once even they had left she put on a show just for me. Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT!

I walked from the back of the hide at Bushy Beach to the OBPC just after 7am this morning then later made the mistake of trying to walk south into a southerly wind. Silly bu**er! Still I did manage it but took a while, started by the golf course at the bottom of Beach Road and went along the beach then came up to the junction at the end of 1000 Acre Road. (Beach Road beach basically). Helen DoC ranger came by this morning to band Gary {14433} (Little Blue chick ready for release). I took my truck for a WOF (MOT) but it needs some work done, so have booked that for tomorrow. Really really windy so unsure about watch tonight. When it was time to do the afternoon beach walk we decided to take Gary with us and put him into one of the DoC nest boxes at Bushy Beach. There is a small colony of Little Blues at Bushy Beach nicely tucked away and hidden and in all my hours of watching I have never seen one cross the beach (well they are nocturnal doh!). We came back and did the afternoon feed. Sue fed Iny (Little Blue chick) and I fed Seco ( calm and easy to feed Yellow-eyed Penguin chick came in a week ago) and then I fed Rock (frantic scared snappy wild YEP chick found by me yesterday). After feeding I tried giving the YEP chicks a swim, Rock zooms about mostly underwater and is great in the water. In contrast Seco can’t get out the water quick enough, his coat is waterproof, he can swim and has no problem we can see with flippers or feet. He still would rather deal with my ugly mug blocking the ramp than swim, normally a penguin gets as far as poss from a human. The penguin doesn’t like water! It’s a problem. We’ll work on it. Beach later; The wind was still blowing but I decided to go down check the chain and have a look at the beach behind the hide. Once down at the hide I decided to stay a wee while even although my cosy corner was already occupied. Of course I stayed for the whole watch, I’m obsessed alright? 6 Yellow-eyed Penguins seen coming in as well as 1 YEP that went out to have a wee swim and a drink. My old pal 18193 who was the first to come ashore at 6.25pm came past the viewing platform at 7.30pm and then lay on the path under the VP for the rest of the night. With the strong cold wind most visitors came had a look for a couple of minutes then left. 134 visitors counted with many nice folk however I am worried about the youth of today. At 6.45pm I noticed people going down the path to the beach and I was on the run. As I went along the top path I shouted to the folk on the beach but they just laughed back at me. I bounded down the path and rushed across the beach. So 7 young men, some pretty beefy, low slung jeans and sideways caps, heaps of attitude and disrespect with their bottles of booze, their smokes and intent on some fun. Facing them one old guy worked up but out of breath. Result? Lots of language and 7 guys walking up the path and leaving Bushy Beach. The wind calmed a bit and at 8.15pm there was only myself and four others, they were in the hide while I enjoyed watching the 2 by the dead cabbage tree, one moulting and one with it’s new post moult coat, lovely end to a strange evening.

Early start this morning as low tide was at 7am and I wanted to get down to the beach then. So I didn’t disturb the Bushy Beach penguins going out fishing I climbed down at the back of the hide with the steel rope to help me. As usual there was a big fat Fur Seal lying below and he didn’t shift until my foot was dangling above his head. I started to walk round to OBPC but immediately saw a Yellow-eyed Penguin chick hard against the cliff at the back of the beach. He must have been sending messages to my subconscious to make me get up so early. I easily caught Rock, he weighed 3.5kg, popped him in my sack and walked the rest of the way and met up with Sue who lifted us back home. When Sue checked him over all she could find wrong was some blood in his mouth. We fed the other penguins in care and then I went off to walk more beaches from Kakanui to Waianakarua DoC ranger Helen called by to check that Rock wasn’t micro chipped (he wasn’t) and then Sue took the bird for a 10am appointment with vet Beccy at Vetlife. She checked him over and we will just keep a close eye on him especially when feeding. Sue came and took me back to my truck (I was going to hitch a lift but no vehicle came past in 25mins!) after my walk then it was back home to carry on with the day as normal, hopefully. Beach later; Afternoon walk was ok then home for feeding. Obviously the new inmate takes a bit of handling at feeding time but I’m sure we will get better, eh pal! I checked around the headland before starting my beach watch, all clear. Quite a few folk in the hide when 2 Yellow-eyed Penguins came in early before 6pm, after that there was a massive gap until 7.50pm when they started to come in again. Great to see more birds tonight total 9, super. Amongst the 127 visitors I enjoyed chatting to Terri, was pleased to meet the Campbell family from Scotland and it was great that Annie enjoyed her night. Unfortunately I found the behaviour of a real birder from Torquay annoying, he made sure he got his tripod setup with no thought of others. A real pain.

Kevin & Helen called round just before 7am to collect Flip and start the long journey ahead for the poor penguin. When I checked on Prince, Royal penguin we picked up yesterday, it wasn’t looking very good. We decided to bring him indoors as it was a cooler morning and he seemed cold. We worked hard during the day with him, crop feeding dexolyte and small amounts of fish slurry. All to no avail, our exotic guest from a far off land died at 1.30pm. Just a shame that family picked him up and took him home. If they had left him alone he would have been with us 2 days earlier and with more of a chance. I walked the beach by Beach Road this morning and counted 6 unleashed dogs running about. I did see a wee article in the ODT about DoC asking people to keep their dogs under control at this time of year as there might be moulting penguins on beaches. Oh well. My afternoon beach walk was nice and quite but the sea still has large swells at times. Sue did all the afternoon feeding and Seco behaved well for her, he really has come on a treat since coming in. Beach later; A very poor watch tonight with only 3 Yellow-eyed Penguins seen coming in and 2 of them were at 8.20pm. No action around the platform and only occasional glimpses of birds under the dead cabbage tree. Out of the 117 visitors I counted I didn’t really get chatting to many, apart from nice Andrea from central. I did endure a very noisy Italian tour group of about 15 folk. I asked them several times to stop shouting at each other to no avail. Eventually I asked to speak to the tour leader and asked to see their DoC concession paperwork (?), they told me they didn’t have a concession so I got on the phone to the ranger (only pretending) and they were off within 5 minutes. Result!

After a couple of days with long walks in the hot sun I thought I would ease off today and have a rest. When I was giving Seco a swim after the morning feed I noticed that the pool had suddenly turned murky. It had looked good yesterday and I didn’t do the usual Sunday chore of emptying and refilling as with only one chick to swim I thought it might last a fortnight. Wrong. As I emptied it I punctured the bottom so had to get out the spare pool. The air pump had a leak so I had to inflate by mouth and then I noticed a tear in the bottom of the spare. I got out a smaller pool and filled that one up instead. Phew! Easy day? While filling the pool I got a call from Kennedy Lange, the Programme Manager Biodiversity for DoC, at Geraldine, to the north of us. Sue and Kennedy had talked last week about a Royal Penguin apparently in moult and standing on a beach near Ashburton. We had expected to go and collect it on Saturday but the penguin suddenly disappeared. Kennedy told us that someone had picked it up and kept it at home for the weekend, seems the bird spent the weekend cuddled up watching the TV with the kids. Probably well intentioned but totally inappropriate actions. If you see a penguin in distress around Oamaru phone us on 021022 48417 or outwith our area phone the DoC hotline 0800 362468. Anyway Sue went up to Timaru and picked Prince up and brought him home, he’s in a bad way but we will try our best to save him. While attending to him Kevin & Helen, DoC rangers, brought us Flip, a Yellow-eyed Penguin chick on its way to Massey Wildlife Centre for surgery to a damaged flipper. It’s only an overnight stay, so good luck Flip. I still managed to walk the beach and then later I went down and climbed down at the back of the hide onto Second Beach and walked along to OBPC. Brenda doing the watch tonight, just as well as I am knackered. Well it was a quiet night for Brenda, well apaprt from having to go down to the beach to have a chat with a fool who had gone down there. She saw 4 Yellow-eyed Penguins come out the sea and cross the beach and go to the bush. She also saw a couple of moulters walk down to the sea to have a drink, must have been tough for the moulters as it was so hot today. Brenda only counted 99 folk tonight. Thanks for doing that Brenda.