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General news

Living on shaky ground

June 11, 2016 at 4:44 pm


The moderate earthquake that hit Fiordland last week is reminder that tawaki have chosen a particularly precarious stretch of coast to breed. The species’ entire breeding distribution follows one of New Zealand major geological boundaries, the Alpine Fault.

Tawaki breeding range (red), Alpine Fault and our three study sites. Maybe we should be worried too?

Tawaki breeding range (red), Alpine Fault and our three study sites. Maybe we should be worried too?

Here the Pacific Plate meets the Indo-Australian Plate, two of the earth’s major tectonic plates. Or more specifically, the Pacific Plate moves over its counterpart, pushing it downwards while lifting itself up  – forming the Southern Alps in the process. It’s a pretty lively zone where earthquakes are a common occurrence. So tawaki live in a pretty shaky region.

That wouldn’t be half so bad, if they would breed in earthquake proof burrows. But a lot of them don’t. Many tawaki establish their nests under rocks or boulders, sometimes along the course of old landslips which in itself is a reminder of the violent forces of earthquakes. As researcher, it is a pain to find your way through this jumble of rocks because not every stone you step on is as stable as it seems. Even larger boulders may give way and start to roll when you try to climb over them. Obviously, that is the last thing you want as there might be tawaki breeding under that very same rock.

It does not take much to imagine what an earthquake might do to this tawaki nest

It does not take much to imagine what an earthquake might do to this tawaki nest

What does this mean for tawaki when there is an earthquake?

Well, first of all, as stated before earthquakes are a common occurrence along the Alpine Fault. So we can probably assume that a lot of the rocks the penguins have decided to breed under have been shaken into place already and are unlikely to be moved by another wee quake.

However… there is a very big earthquake waiting to happen. The Alpine Fault has ruptured four times in the past 9 centuries, which is about one big earthquake every 225 years. And the last rupture dates back to 1717 – almost 300 years ago. So the next big one is overdue. In fact, geologist estimate the next rupture of the Alpine Fault to occur in the next 50 years. And it will create a massive earthquake of magnitude 8 or more, at least as violent as the 2015 Nepal earthquake. If not more so. To put that into perspective, the devastating earthquake that hit Christchurch in February 2011 was of  magnitude 6.3.

Predicted isoseismals &amp; consequences for the next Alpine Fault rupture (source: <a href="example.com">http://bit.ly/1DZWvK1</a>).

Predicted isoseismals & consequences for the next Alpine Fault rupture (source: http://bit.ly/1DZWvK1).

The predicted epicenter is about half way between Jackson Head and Harrison Cove. Actually the isoseismals (blue lines in the graph above) forecasting the spatial distribution of seismic activity, neatly cover the core breeding areas of West Coast and Fiordland tawaki. So penguins occupying this stretch of coast will be in for a wild ride indeed. And it is safe to assume that the rocks under which tawaki are breeding will move once more when that happens.

If the quake hits during the breeding season tawaki might indeed be in trouble. In this case, a lot of penguins attending their nests may be crushed by shifting rocks or buried under the rubble of landslides. With such a big earthquake, tsunamis are probably to be expected as well so that birds not breeding under rocks may get washed away. So it could be quite bad. But tawaki would have to very unlucky for that to happen.

Two adults in front of their nest at Jackson Head. Will these rocks stay where they are in a quake?

Two adults in front of their nest at Jackson Head. Will these rocks stay where they are in a quake?

How likely is it that tawaki will be at home during quake?

Tawaki spend most of their lives at sea. So the timing of the quake would have to be spot on and coincide with the penguins’ breeding season (August to November) or moulting (February), the only periods of the year the birds spend substantial time on land. This means that the penguins are only in the region for four months every year. That’s only a 1:3 chance of tawaki witnessing the quake first-hand. It’s more likely that they come back from their migration to find their breeding site layout altered substantially.

If it happens during the breeding season, will it be enough to wipe them out completely?

Highly unlikely, as there will be a lot of non-breeders and juveniles as well as foraging parents at sea and therefore likely spared from quake-related misfortune. And at sea, those birds can handle all kinds of turmoil…

Field Report 2015 released

February 3, 2016 at 4:51 pm


The original shot used for the 2015 season field report cover

The original shot used for the 2015 season field report cover

Although this season’s field work is long over – and, in fact, tawaki are currently going through their annual moult after a grueling and fantastic season (depending if you’re a penguin from Jackson Head or Harrison Cove, respectively) – we only now managed to compile or field report for the season. It can be found as PDF on our Download page and is easily reconginzed by the awesome and overwhelmingly green cover shot.

We have a good excuse for the late publication though. We have been busy with other penguin work on the Otago Peninsula where we trialled novel camera loggers on Yellow-eyed penguins. And despite a few organisational set-backs the trials went well and provided us with truly fantastic underwater footage of a penguin searching for and catching prey. Not strictly tawaki but too awesome not to share it here:

Life after rain

September 18, 2015 at 11:25 pm


Finally a break in the weather. Up until lunchtime we had fish swimming past the living room windows of our Neils Beach domicile. But within half an hour or so it all disappeared and made room for blue skies. And sunshine, actual real sunshine! Miracles do happen!

In the morning Ursula and Junishi drove down to Queenstown to pick up Klemens Pütz from the airport. Jun will be heading back to Dunedin. Klemens will take care of the Jackson Head tawaki tracking when we head over to Milford Sound in about two weeks.

Hotte and I borrowed a ute from Geoff Robson, the owner of Greenstone Helicopters who has been supporting the Tawaki Project since its beginning. We headed out to Jackson Head after lunch. Over the course of three hours we did a nest check run at Popi’s Plaza and the Hilltop area. No more nest failures to report, which is great! The sun did its thing to make the bush bashing actually an enjoyable past-time.

Ursula and Klemens only returned to Neils Beach around 10pm so that we had to scrap the idea of deploying more loggers tonight. However, with Klemens we have a true penguin tracking pioneer in our team so that we can work in two groups and get twice the amount of penguins fitted with loggers in the next few days.

  • Popis Plaza in more favourable conditions
  • Male tawaki incubating his small chicks
  • Hotte taking a breather while hiking up to Hilltop breeding area
  • “Wot? You guys again?!?”
  • Family reunion in the shade – a female tawaki returns to her mate and chick at the scenic nest
  • Trumpet duet by the scenic nest tawaki pair

Swamped

September 17, 2015 at 7:51 pm


We’re swamped down in Neils Beach. A heavy rainfall warning is in place for Westland with 130mm expected to fall until tonight. Not good news for us – and probably not good news for the penguins either.

Around midday a gap in the clouds opened up and the sun even peeped through it for a moment. But when it counted – in the evening – the rain returned with full force and reached almost biblical proportions.

Boring picture taken from our base at Neil's Beach - nobody wants to be out in this kind of weather

Boring picture taken from our base at Neil’s Beach – nobody wants to be out in this kind of weather

Deploying data loggers in these conditions is really difficult. The adhesive side of the tape we use to attach the devices to the penguins will inevitably get wet and won’t stick that well. Once the tape is stuck to the devices it can withstand weeks in ocean water. But use damp tape during deployment and you have a recipe for disaster.

On top of that a tsunami warning after the earthquake in Chile, rough seas and swollen creeks made it simply impossible to reach the tawaki colonies of Jackson Head.

Damp deployments

September 16, 2015 at 11:28 pm


We called off today’s nest searches for obvious reasons. We will still try to get the first set of data loggers deployed on willing tawaki tonight. With breeding further advanced than we’d hoped, we haven’t got any time to waste.

***

The weather wasn’t on our side this morning with heavy rainfall throughout most of the day. Nevertheless, we used a break in the weather to head out to Jackson Head after dinner tonight. Armed with three GPS logger/TDR packs we made our way along the coast to a site we call “Popi’s Plaza” (named after Popi Garcia-Borboroglu, president of the Global Penguin Society, who’s discovered it).

It’s densely vegetated with kiekie and bush lawyer, two plants that drive humans crazy because it’s so easy to get entangled in the former and ripped to shreds by the thorns of the latter. Once you have struggled through the nasty stuff, you’ll reach broadleaf forest where some tawaki breed in small caves and crevisses in a steep bank.

Although we had only found six nests here the day before, three of these were quite suitable for our tracking study. We managed to deploy devices on the female penguins at the first two nests, but unfortunately found that our third potential logger nest had not survived the day of heavy rain. Seeing a mother guarding her lifeless chick put a spotlight on the reality of El Niño this year.

Last year, two of 30 nests we monitored failed. This year we haven’t even looked at more then 20 nests and four are gone already. So although nest numbers initially were comparable to last year, we’re losing nests at a higher rate.

To Invercargill

October 31, 2014 at 11:26 am


Off we go down South. Our team will travel down to Invercargill today to catch the first ferry to Stewart Island tomorrow.

Next item on the list – underwater filming off tawaki off the Anglem coast.

The tale of river swimming penguins

August 27, 2014 at 8:33 pm


Another cracker of a day on the West Coast. Have I ever experienced cloudless skies on the West Coast? Probably, but somehow I mainly remember the rain. Seems like this about to change as the forecasters on tele (an impressive TV set adorns one of the walls in my hotel room) only stick suns onto the West Coast portion of their maps. I do not complain. Not a bit.

First thing this morning, the whole crew – Sam, director Ida-san, camera man Hongo-san, the camera technician ‘Kay’ and I – headed down to Jackson Head. To have a look at the access to their designated film site. As it happens it is also the site where we will start our research in a bit more than two weeks.

The original idea was for the crew to film on a beach about half an hour to the North of Haast, which is a lot more scenic and easier to access than Jackson Head. But DOC changed their minds in the eleventh hour and condemned the poor guys to film on the steepest slopes only accessible via the treacherous rocky shoreline of Jackson Head.

And, as could be expected, I noticed a few furrowed brows when my companions laid eyes on the sharp and pointy rocks that we had to climb over for half an hour before reaching the site. But it wasn’t half as bad is it first appeared. Hongo-san and Kay dropped of some gear in water proof bags. And of course, all of them got to meet their first Tawaki. Some birds were boulder hopping just like us. Seeing the penguins really upped their spirits. As penguin usually do.

We headed back to town around lunch time before continuing on North, past Knights Point to Moeraki River. Ida-san was armed with the book by a Japanese photographer who indeed had taken photos of a Fiordland penguin swimming up what looked like a creek. I had my doubts that this could be Moeraki River, which is reasonably wide and deep and a whitebaiter paradise. Sam brought a map which had some ball point pen markings that seemed to indicate a footpath to the river mouth from the Monro Beach track. That turned out to be a dud – the area is an impenetrable swamp dominated by Kiekie. So we carried on all the way to the beach where we were greeted by a battalion of sandflies running a full attack on our exposed body parts. And the revelation that there is no access to the river mouth around the steep headlands to the West of the beach.

But it was a nice walk regardless.

Almost back where we left our car, we followed another track leading towards the river. After a short tramp through swampy forest we found an old whitebaiter’s hut with access to the river. And here wet met the hut owner himself as we was just about to tie his dinghi to a ramshackle jetty. He said his name was Syd and, no, in all his 40 years on Moeraki river he had never seen penguins swimming upstream. But he offered us a ride to the river mouth so that we could have a look ourselves.

So far I have only ever seen the bit of Moeraki river that is visible from the Highway, with Lake Moeraki to the east and the river disappearing in the forested hills to the west. In my imagination, Moeraki river was this crystal clear water way that gently solled through the West coast rain forest. Of course it did. But what I never pictured was the massive array of whitebait stands that lined both sides of the river. Every 50 metres there were the jetty like structures all pulled up out of the water by steel wires – the whitebaiting season only starts on 1 September.

One thing that blew me away was a majestic Kotuku, the New Zealand white heron, that took flight as we chugged downstream. I thought these rare birds could only be seen at the Okarito lagoon.

“No” Syd said. “That fella’s been here a few years now all by himself. But you guys want to see penguins. How about some shags?”

Well, yes, but no.

 

Arrival in Haast

August 26, 2014 at 7:10 pm


So… here we are. On the West Coast.

After a solid 5 hours drive I pulled over at the Haast Visitor centre to have a quick chat to Jac Amey from DOC. It turned out to be a nice and relaxed one-and-a-half hour cuppa and catch-up that was quite welcome. One bit of important news was that the Tawaki double counts at Jackson Head had to be postponed by a couple of days and were only going to happen tomorrow and the day after. And that she was one searcher short for the second day. Of course I volunteered. Will give me an excellent chance to have a look at our study site, the types of nests we will be working with and the state of the breeding season.

The postponement also means, that I have to find something to do for the Japanese film crew I will be supervising during their Tawaki documentary project over the next few weeks. They actually wanted to get into it from tomorrow onwards. But if we don’t know the location of Tawaki nests, there is no point carrying tons of camera equipment around the Heads.

I actually met the team for the first time when I headed over to the Heartland Hotel which will be our base (courtesy of NHK) the next three weeks. Ida-san the director approached me as I entered the restaurant to greet me, the production assistant and interpreter Sam in tow. The whole team of four are a really nice bunch and we had a fruitful discussion about what to do the next few days, now that starting at Jackson Head the next day was out of the question.

So… tomorrow we will head up North to Moeraki River where they hope to film penguins swimming up the water way to their nests. I had long email conversations about this topic in the preceeding weeks. I had never heard of penguins swimming up that river, but Ida-san had photographic proof. Although I gotta say, that the river on the photos seems more like a creek to me. But, well, we’ll see what Moeraki River looks like.

 

Recce trip to Jackson Head

August 20, 2014 at 9:33 am


Just returned from a two day trip out to Haast and Jackson Head where I had a look at how things are progressing with the Fiordland penguins. The breeding population has yet to be surveyed by DOC which will happen sometime next week. As of yet we have no clear idea where the nests are located or how many breeding pairs there are.

Jackson-West-pano

Jackson Head – looking west towards Smoothwater Point

However, even though it appeared rather quiet there surely were penguins in the area. Occasional honks were heard from the bush on top of the cliffs – although most of them seemed to be coming from dense Kiekie patches. Now, I am really appreciative of the New Zealand vegetation in general and native plants in particular. But penguins breeding in Kiekie means trouble. The stuff is literally impenetrable, penguins are hard to spot, and it is all in all no fun to work in this kind of habitat. Well, here’s to hoping that there will be nests with cool birds in a more accessible setting.

Kiekie patch atop the rocky beach; if only all penguin nests were as accessible as the one indicated by an arrow.

Kiekie patch atop the rocky beach; if only all penguin nests were as accessible as the one indicated by an arrow.

I had with me Sam, a production assistant working for the Japanese NHK which will film a documentary on Fiordland penguins. I will be acting as their scientific consultant and supervisor. They had a rough time finding their way through DOC’s all new albeit by no means easier to comprehend permitting process, but eventually we managed to suss it all out for them. Through the consultation work we manage to offset some of the public funding for the project that never really came to fruition.

As Sam and I were scrambling along the shore looking for good vantage points to place 4K cameras, we came across some Tawaki returning home from a foraging trip. And I also realised that it will be tremendously difficult to catch penguins we will fit with GPS loggers down here on the beach.

Spot the penguin.

The tiny white blotch indicated by an arrow is a Fiordland penguin preening after emerging from the sea.

I am always astonished when I witness the agility of penguins in what we humans perceive as “difficult terrain”. Surely, penguins – crested penguins in particular – are the animal equivalent of Parkour traceurs. They just jump over what I would call razorsharp volcanic rocks without hesitation, land safely on the next boulder over, hop a couple of times to the crest of the stone only to disappear with another daring dash somewhere in what certainly must be a stony maze to them. Only to reemerge at the top of the cliff less than a minute later. I am so looking forward to see the footage the Japanese film crew will get of this spectacle.

Fiordland penguin negotiating the rocky shore of Jackson

Fiordland penguin negotiating the rocky shore of Jackson Head West

We will be back at Jackson Bay next week when filming starts. It’s another three weeks until the Tawaki Project gets under way in earnest.

 

Green light for the Tawaki Project

August 15, 2014 at 10:04 am


As of 31 July 2014, the Tawaki Proect has received its official stamp of approval by the New Zealand Department of Conservation – the research permits have been issued. This means that we will be able to start our work in the first (or second) week of September.

One of the new miniature GPS dive loggers to be deployed on Fiordland penguins in a few weeks

One of the new miniature GPS dive loggers to be deployed on Fiordland penguins in a few weeks

The pilot study will concentrate on the Fiordland penguins breeding at Jackson Head. Our research focus is on the deployment of GPS dive loggers to track the birds’ movements at sea and monitor their diving behaviour. We will also trial surveillance cameras at selected nest sites that will record time lapse videos that hopefully enable us to determine exact hatching dates, nest attendance patterns and, hence, foraging trip lenghts of adult penguins, and allow the monitoring of potential predator nest intrusions.

So much for the good news. Unfortunately, our problem finding accomodation around Jacksons Bay or at Haast still persists. This isn’t helped by the fact that our funding seems to get whittled down a bit more every day. Support funds that were calculated in have disappeared, donations have shrunk to fractions of what was initially announced. And our last hope of getting a couple of bunks at the DOC facilities in Haast has imploded as well. We will have to keep looking in the next few weeks.

But, heck, we made it this far… this will work out as well in the end.

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