The last tawaki to be fitted with a satellite transmitter was opposite to what is generally called “the early bird”. In fact, this male bird was two weeks behind as other birds fitted with tags.

We first heard of the tawaki in mid-February, when Richard got a message from Tom Woodhouse, a DOC ranger from North Otago who went out for an evening paddle along Kakanui river about 10 km south of Oamaru. He spotted a puffed up tawaki hauled up in a tiny cave in the sandstone cliffs on the Southend of the Kakanui estuary. The bird had just started to drop feathers, so we knew that this guy would not be ready for a satellite tag before early March.

On 6 March, one week after Jean got her device and was released at Penguin Place, Thomas and Ursula drove up north to Kakanui for the deployment. They made their way along the cliffs until the stood in front of Tom’s cave. The penguin was hunched over a pile of feathers and has almost completed the moult. Almost.

The tawaki’s feathers still looked rather dull, a pretty clear indication that they were still growing, and that the penguin hadn’t properly preened his new plumage. He would need another couple of days at least. So, the team would have to come back in a few days.

Thomas and Ursula left Tom – naming the bird after the DOC ranger who discovered it seemed appropriate – and drove back to Dunedin.

Three days later, the entire East coast was engulfed in thick fog. This was welcome weather for the final satellite tags deployment since there was hardly any shade near Tom’s cave, and the cave itself was far too small to fit the device in there. But with this fog, the conditions outside were quite pleasant and not nearly as hot as the day before.

It seemed as if the Kakanui River had risen quite a bit since the last visit. Thomas and Ursula had to wade through knee deep water to get to Tom’s cave. And when Thomas crouched down to get the tawaki out of the penguin’s abode, he found the cave empty; the huge pile feathers had disappeared. Obviously, the river had flooded the cave in the past days. Tom, the penguin, almost certainly got wet feet. Had he left already?

Thomas kept walking along the sandstone cliff and there he was. The tawaki was sitting on a small ledge about 2 m above the water. 20 minutes later, Tom (the penguin) was back in his cave, out of the sun as the fun began to burn away, wearing the last of the 18 satellite transmitters.

Tom spent another couple of days in his cave before he swam down the Kakanui River and out to sea in the morning of 11 March. He travelled east for the first three days and then turned south. He has been swimming that way ever since, hardly deviating from this course. When New Zealand entered its four-week Covid19 lockdown, Tom was about 350 km northeast of the Auckland Islands. Four days ago, he passed Campbell Island and is now approaching the edge of the Campbell Rise. Jean is only about 80 km east of his current position.

Who knows, maybe our last two penguins team up in the coming days? We’ll see…