Field work preparation

Doubtful Sound recce

September 16, 2019 at 1:27 pm


We made it to Doubtful Sound/Patea with the help of the fantastic people of Fiordland Expeditions (fiordlandexpeditions.co.nz) to test the waters for the next phase of the Tawaki Project. From next year onward we want to have a look how the penguins use the second longest fjord (40 km!) when foraging. Do they head out to the sea or do they stay in the fjord like their counterparts in Milford Sound/Piopiotahi?

East Shelter Island at the entrance of Doubtful Sound.

In the late afternoon the Tutoko dropped us off on one of the Shelter Islands which sit exposed right at the entrance if the fjord. Landing there is a bit of a nightmare but once we were in the forest, tawaki land greeted us with a penguin version of Hobbiton. Most penguins breed in ‘holes in the ground’ under a canopy of intricate tree root tangles. And quite a few of them were sitting on young chicks.

Tawaki Hobbiton on East Shelter Is.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a tawaki…”
Who says penguins are all black-and-white?
Let’s hope that tree has no plans of standing upright again.
A few days old chicks trying to squeeze into their dad’s brood patch.
The Tutoko from Fiordland Expeditions crewed by the super-helpful Abbo and Mandy

Going back to Whenua Hou soon

January 26, 2018 at 5:47 pm


In exactly one month, we’ll be packing our gear for another short trip to Whenua Hou/Codfish Island. David Houston and Thomas Mattern will be flying to the island to find tawaki volunteers that have just finished or are about to finish their moult.

After having tracked the penguins during their journey before the moult last year (check out our blog post about this: https://www.tawaki-project.org/…/the-tawaki-pre-moult-journ…/), we now want to reveal another big secret about the penguins. Where they spend the austral winter and prepare for the next breeding season.

The satellite tags will transmit the penguins’ position in real-time and we should receive data on each bird’s whereabouts up to six or seven times a day. So even if the birds manage to preen off the devices on their journey, we still get data until they get rid of their device. Which, by the way, would be totally uncool as the transmitters are not cheap at all (A million thanks to the Antarctic Research Trust for providing us with devices!)

We have 12 devices available which we hope to deploy in equal numbers at our three study sites, Jackson Head, Milford Sound and Whenua Hou.

Quick note from Neils Beach

September 14, 2015 at 10:05 am


We’re settling in at Neils Beach. We arrived at the house we’re renting for fieldwork after a 7-hours drive from Milford Sound. A clear starry sky emphasized the darkness that engulfed Neils Beach – no street lamps here. Just the rolling of the sea in the air.

This morning the sun was out which isn’t quite that usual at the West Coast. It offered us a cool view from the veranda of our ‘field station’.

Panorama taken from the veranda of our Neils Beach field station

Panorama taken from the veranda of our Neils Beach field station

Today we gotta do another trip back to Queenstown to pick up Ursula & Jun before we finally get dirty at Jackson Head tomorrow.