This month has seen the completion of the annual transmitter change, as we fitted a new type of transmitter to the all-important ladies.  Called the egg timer, it monitors the female’s activity patterns and uses these to work out whether she is nesting. 

Well where to begin?  It’s been a little while since the last ranger diary from Whenua Hou / Codfish Island, and that is because things have been pretty hectic here in kakapo land.

June brought the start of transmitter change season, time for all kakapo to get their new transmitters for the upcoming year.  This month on Codfish was hard work but great fun, as each day we set off up the hill to catch as many birds as possible. 

Well, it’s that time of year again, the days are a lot darker as the shortest day of the year has just passed. However, this doesn’t mean that the workload reduces as Anchor Island gears up for the annual transmitter changes.

Ok so I am not going to talk about the weather as our latest volunteer Iris alluded me to the fact that the ranger diaries all have a heavy meteorological influence!

It’s a strange but pleasant experience to be back on Codfish Island after six months of working on Anchor Island.  Smooth tracks, a sandy beach, that amazing view of the Ruggedys and hardly any sandflies!  Just another day in paradise eh.

Hi, Chris the Trainee Ranger here. Well I have just finished my work placement on Anchor Island with the Kakapo Team.

Things are finally a bit quieter on Codfish Island after the hectic breeding season last summer and we have been given the opportunity to volunteer our time to some of the other DoC people who helped us out during the last breeding season.

I was lucky enough to spend two weeks doing Mohua surveys in the Takitimus and around Lake Hauroko for Ros Cole from Murihiku Area Office. 

 Last Day on Anchor Island

Kia ora koutou, Happy New Year to everyone out there and thank you for supporting the kakapo recovery project in 2009. We look forward to your continued support and interest in 2010 and welcome you to spread the story of the kakapo and the work of the Department of Conservation.  Well there has been no chance of sunburn during this trip to Anchor Island. Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind, joined us to see in the New Year down on the bench overlooking Anchor Harbour. We attempted to sing louder than he could but even with his howling gusts I think he was the more tuneful at the time.

So it’s the last day of 2009!

We were all prepared to go out and change the transmitters on a couple of the 2008 juvenile boys this morning but the weather has thwarted our attempts, at least for this morning. It is the middle of summer and not a lot above zero outside. It snowed to 900m on the neighbouring Resolution Island yesterday.
Christmas has come and gone with a flurry of activity.

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 sun shines again on Whenua Hou (well some days) and reminds us all that summer is on its way.  It is just over a year since we started preparing for the last breeding season - things are certainly a lot more subdued on the island this time around!.

Hello all, Tim the newbie kakapo ranger here.  Two fantastic weeks as a volunteer nest minder in March weren’t enough, so now I have the chance to work with these amazing birds for a year.

Woohoo, we have just released the last of the season’s Kakapo chicks with the departure of Hananui’s chick (yet to be named) from the holding pen to the wild expanse of the Whenua Hou forest.

The 15th July was a night to remember ( or forget ) on Anchor Island. An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck not far from here giving the place a fair old shake up. 

For the first time ever we have kakapo chicks on Anchor!  Four chicks were transferred here from Codfish Island and are being kept in a pen for a few more weeks before being released into their new Fiordland home.

The long awaited return to the Anchorian empire in Dusky Sound is upon us!  After almost a year and a half of kakapo attention being focussed on Codfish Island and chick rearing we have finally made it back to Anchor Island.

This update is coming direct to you from cold invercargill!  Inside it is a hive of activity as it's where we are hand rearing 26 of this year's chicks.

Well, things have definitely slowed up on the island since I went off for my two week break, most importantly there are a whole lot less chicks here now as they were relocated to Invercargill for hand raising. Its amazing how different the island feels with 15 less people on it too! 

Well all of a sudden we have a lot of chicks on the island and not so many eggs left to hatch. There are now 28 chicks that have hatched and another 9 fertile eggs that are close to full term.

The breeding season is steaming ahead and the island is buzzing with activity day and night. There are now 20 chicks being raised on the island – many by foster parents – the eggs of inexperienced young mums being given to older birds for safe-keeping. Six are being looked after by the kakapo team and doing well so far.

Sue Cameron, a volunteer on the island, has one of the most important roles, keeping 34 people well fed and watered. So far she has filled 270 dinner plates. Here is her account of life on the island as chief cook. 

A major benchmark has been reached on the island – kakapo numbers are now in triple figures and the chicks keep coming. I arrived on the island on March 5 to a flurry of activity and friendly faces and joined a team working day and night to ensure the season’s success.

They say that chaos breeds opportunity.  Well, at the moment it would seem that on Whenua Hou chaos is in fact breeding kakapo.  Organised chaos that is.  There are currently 34 people (I think!) on the island.  It's a mammoth undertaking to organise the workload, including despatching our very dedicated 20 or so volunteers every day. 

Christine Officer, a new volunteer nest minder on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island, gives you a brief insight into what life on the island is all about, including walking 29km in 36 hours!

The egg tally is looking very healthy and has surged to 37 eggs for the season.  Of those, 20 are currently fertile and seven are yet to be checked for fertility.  Deidre Mussen,  a volunteer nest minder, continues to provide you with the lastest news from the island.

Deidre Mussen, a volunteer nest minder, finds out that life can get very busy, very quickly on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island. Here is her account of what has been happening on the island in recent days.

The frenzy of kakapo breeding activity continues on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island with the discovery of new matings and nests an almost daily occurrence.  To date, the egg tally is 29, with 15 being confirmed as fertile.

Hi, Alison Ballance here.  I am visiting the island gathering material for a radio series "Our Changing World" on Radio NZ.  Here is an update on the breeding season:

Whenua Hou is buzzing at the moment. Five rangers (Phil, Ness, Chris, Jo and Errol) are out and about each day, checking all the track and bowls for mating sign, and locating each of the 38 females of breeding age on the island to determine if they are moving around prior to mating, or whether they are settling on a nest following mating. Everyone looks forward to hearing their news when they return to the hut each day. There were three matings last night:

Life on the island is exciting and SO busy as the hut fills up with willing helpers.  Dr Jacqueline Beggs is one such helper, she's a member of the 'Kakapo Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee' (KSTAC). 

This group meet together twice yearly to provide independent advice to the Kakapo Recovery Programme on it's Research and Technology.  Jacqueline recently donned her field boots and pitched in for a week on Codfish. 

Here is Jacqueline's update and impressions of a breeding season in full swing......

One week in kakapo land is a long time!   Since Ruth's last diary entry when Jo, Phil, Ness and I arrived on the island the breeding season has accelerated exponentially as the birds really start to get into the swing of things. In the last week there has been a flurry of matings.

This year we’ve employed four extra kakapo ranger staff to help us through the breeding season.  Jason Malham, Ruth Cole, Phil Marsh and Jo Whitehead.  The workload out here is ramping up so everyone is busy busy busy.
Here's an update from Ruth about Lisa's nest and other matings....

It's all go here on Codfish Island.  Check out the First fertile egg of 2009 media release, to find out all about our first nest of 2009.

More recently, on the 12th January Nora mated with Lionel, Nora has not mated since 2002 so this is fantastic news.

But even better news came today......

Twas the night before the day before the night before Christmas, all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a...........

Something different this time! Not a ranger diary but a volunteer diary, read on to find out what its like to be a 'feed out' volunteer on Whenua Hou from Bronwyn, Ross and Suzi our volunteer stars in November

It’s the start of spring on Codfish, this was signaled in true southern style with a dump of snow on the island last weekend.  The onset of spring means the first of the orchids are flowering on Codfish, the days are a little longer and most importantly the kakapo are starting to get organised for a busy summer ahead. 

Its been a while since an update from the island, but we have been super-busy with the season's chicks - much busier than we normally would be over winter.

Our six kakapo chicks have turned into big green budgies (as we like to call them) right before our eyes.  For us it doesn't seem long since they were helpless little balls of grey fluff that we had to support while we fed them.

Its been snowing and hailing all day here on Codfish Island so Chris and I thought it was time to send a kakapo update to the world.  The chicks have settled into their new home pretty quickly and are getting more and more boisterous every day.

Saturday was the start of another big mission for our six chicks.  It seems that the public of New Zealand are big fans, and so as part of their journey back to Whenua Hou, they had another social stopover..... 

With their return to the wintry climate of Whenua Hou looming, the weekend was a great opportunity to show the birds to the people of Nelson.  The display happened was hosted by the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary and about 5000 people came to see the chicks over two days!

Watching the changes

After the loss of "Mokopuna" attention has been fully focused on the remaining six chicks, and the ups and downs have continued.  Raising chicks in captivity means trying to replicate what would happen in the wild as closely as possible, in order to fledge a healthy chick.

Mokopuna dies

Hand-raising kakapo chicks requires so much effort and dedication from everyone on the team and we do all that we can to increase the chance of survival.  So you can imagine the devastation when, after a week of illness, we lost our oldest chick "Mokopuna".

Hot chicks in the city 

Well, its been a whirlwind of domestic travel for the 7 latest additions to the kakapo population.  We left the calm and serene sanctuary of Whenua Hou where the sun was shining and the birds were singing, and winged our way to the top of the South Island where the chicks will spend the next couple of months growing.

Moving the chicks and some boys around 

Today we are saying goodbye (temporarily) to the seven youngest kakapo in the world.  The chicks are being relocated to Nelson where they will be hand-raised until they are ready for wild release.

All the eggs have hatched 

The last two eggs for 2008 have hatched - "Jester", the second of Cyndy’s eggs hatched on April Fools Day; and "Weheruatanga-o-te-pō"  (Pō for short) which means midnight, hatched on Thursday – at midnight.

More chicks, but we've lost our friend Bill

The weekend proved to be a busy one for us all with the successful hatching of three eggs!!

This week has been another one of excitement and disappointment.  Lisa's chick seemed to be doing well until the shock discovery of finding it dead in the nest on Saturday night.  It was really heartbreaking. 

"It's a kakapo rollercoaster" 

It seems like even kakapo have some bad days at the office; in the last week we’ve shared a few with them.

Eggs Eggs Eggs!!! 

Codfish Island is a busy place these days with around 20 people being here at any one time, including all of the kakapo team and lots of wonderful volunteers.  Since the first mating between Lisa and Basil three weeks ago there have been a total of 11 matings.

Lisa does it again

Dana roared into the hut this evening, really excited to share news that she thought Lisa has mated with Basil. It's easily confirmed, and it shows that once again Lisa is the first female to do the honorable thing for her kind.

Christmas on the island

Good food and good company, and a day off - it’s really just like everyone else’s Christmas (and the weather was a bit rubbish just like everywhere else as well).

Booms away

Today I went out and checked on the data from three SNARKS, and finally it seems the males are really getting underway with their booming.