Field work 2022 underway

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Finally, field work for the Tawaki Project 2022 is underway again! We started off with a 10-day survey trip to Te Puaitaha/Breaksea and Tamatea/Dusky Sounds with the incredible support of Fiordland Expeditions aboard the Tutuko.

Myrene Otis disappearing underground in search of breeding tawaki on Seymour Island.

Checks of our marked colonies in Doubtful Sound/Patea on Seymour and Shelter Islands were first on our list of tasks. Nothing better to get into the field work groove than crawling into narrow caves to inspect penguin nests.

Most nests were either still on eggs or chicks had just started to hatch – about 3 weeks later than in previous years.

Turns out, the majority of nests are back in business albeit about 2-3 weeks behind the usual schedule. Many birds were still incubating eggs when we would have expected to see chicks all around. Obviously, the third year of La Niña has an effect on the timing of breeding.

Jeff White and Myrene caught in the act of not doing anything other than pointing transponder wands and contemplating life choices, while Robin Long wriggles into SY63 to stare four breeding tawaki pairs in the eye.

With Myrene Otis, Robin Long as well as Jeff White and Thomas Mattern, we reinstated the #TawakiGirls and #TawakiBoys teams from a couple of years ago. But it quickly became clear that searching for tawaki in often narrow underground caves, did not really make for a fair competition between the two teams. Basically, whichever team had Robin in wins.

Tawaki witth ca. 1 week old chicks in an neat earth burrow.

Like in the previous years, the Tutoko was our floating home base for the trip. Skipper “tawaki sniffer dog” Abo (if he says “over there’s tawaki” there will be tawaki) and his partner Mandy completed our team (Mandy actually hopped ashore in most of our missions as an honorary #TawakiBoy).

After checking all nests on Seymour on the first day out, we spent the entire second day on Shelter Island, before steaming south towards Breaksea Sound.