The first week of November started out wild and windy here on Codfish Island and also for our compatriots on Anchor Island as 50knot NW winds streaked past with low pressure around the low 980s. Falling trees and branches would certainly pose a threat to our Kakapo friends in these conditions.

The noise of the strong gusts woke me early and I wandered out to the beach at 6:30am to see what was happening out to sea.  Out at the beach I peered through a protecting hand and was surprised to find Errol already there, with his back turned to a gusting sand storm trying to get pictures of the water spray in between sand blasts. The waves were being thrown around against there will and sea birds seemed to be tempting fate in the violent gusts, making the most of the free lift.

We had received a warning the day before about the storm and were asked to monitor the tidal action. In 2003 a big storm devoured the front of the sand dunes and left a cliff of sand along the beach, destroying the vast stretch of Pingao and damaged areas where a small population of South Georgian Diving Petrels burrow and nest in the summer. The Codfish Island population of about 50 breeding pairs of South Georgian Diving Petrels is the only remaining population in the Pacific. Fortunately the height of the wind coincided with the low tide so the homes of our precious burrowing friends remain unharmed.

It has been a varied two weeks so far with a few visitors arriving to conduct surveys on Hoihoi (Yellow Eyed Penguins) and Tawaki (Fiordland Crested Penguins). The two weeks culminated with a transfer of three female Kakapo juveniles to Anchor Island to further balance our two breeding populations. Our mission was to catch and transfer four birds on changeover day.  We had five birds lined up in case of problems on the day. We had been Supplementary Feeding the transfer candidates in the past weeks to monitor their weights and help to keep them in accessible spots.

On changeover day the first two catches were straight forward and then the difficulties started as the remaining three candidates were seen high up in trees. Pura was at least ten metres high in large Kamahi forest roosting on the top of a tangle of supple jack vines. We quickly gave up on her. Our next bird was Jem. After earlier seeing her up a tree we gathered some climbing gear from the hut and tried again however she scarpared. She could move much faster than us in her swampy vine-infested home so she was also given a leave of absence and we moved on.

Our last chance rested with Yasmine. We took the climbing gear up the hill in one last effort. She was still roosting 5 or 6 metres up her tree and this time the climbing skills paid off as we were able to grab her feet with one hand and coerce her into the catch bag, lowering the bag to the ground with a rope. Our air transport soon arrived with a fresh Ranger and a new volunteer ready for the month ahead. By the evening the Kakapo in our transfer boxes will be busy familiarising themselves with their new home on Anchor and I will be making the transition back to town again.