Day 4 – On Proclamation Island

November 11, 2022 at 12:30 pm

We get an early start on a gorgeous day. Up on the top of Proclamation by 8.30am.

Hannah getting one of the drones ready to fly. James Frankham from NZ Geographic next to her.

Flying drone missions with two units in the air while being filmed with the NZ Geo 360° VR camera doing so. Got Proclamation and Depot done despite a stiff breeze with gusts of up to 20 knots by 10am.

A gorgeous day but with a stiff breeze.

Packed up drones and started different tasks. Klemens, Jeff and Bianca down to the penguin landing to collect blood samples; Robin off to the western end to start penguin ground counts.

Robin conducting ground counts of Erect-crested penguins on Proclamation Island.

Hannah does the same starting in the East for Albatross.

Hannah counting Salvin’s albatross, a daunting task given the sheer amount of birds.

Dave & Thomas; install time lapse camera rock bolts, but adhesive need to set for a couple of hours so both return to top of the islands by lunchtime.

Time-lapse camera that will record nesting success of albatross over the next year.

Despite the forecast saying differently, the wind has dropped to about 10 knots from the Southwest. Decide to fly further drone missions. Within 2 hours Penguin, Ruatara and Lion Island are completed – we have the main group in the bag! Between 2pm and 4pm deployed all time lapse cameras. In the process encountered four Albatross carrying GLS loggers.

Salvin’s albatross sitting on a freshly hatched chick with a GLS logger attached to the metal band

Blood team managed to get their sample size up to 20 birds. Robin’s penguin count got up to 1500 pairs and Hannah’s Albatross count 350 nests by the time we have to get off the island around 5 pm. Wind has picked up and turned northwest in the afternoon.

Evohe in the stiffening breeze in the afternoon.

Bumpy ride in dinghy to Evohe. Will not be able to spend the night at Bounties. Instead started sailing north by night fall.