Despite the dangers of living near people and our pets, Korora, or blue penguins, keep on coming back to Paekakariki. Every year I am a little surprised and more than a little pleased to find the plucky little fellas are still with us. If you, like me, want to ensure Korora keep coming back year after year the best thing we can do is to keep our dogs from roaming at night. A little blue penguin waddling up the beach must look like a great toy to a dog.
Blue Penguin footprints, Paekakariki October 2010
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Last week I found 43 sets of tracks between Beach Rd and the rocky shore at Fisherman’s Table. As with last year there were many pairs of tracks at this time of year, often where one appeared to be heavier and sometimes requiring the use of wings for locomotion.
Given benign weather I will be able to track this population every two weeks until they go back to sea more permanently in the summer. Hopefully it will be possible to see first a drop off in numbers and pairs, consistent with nesting, and later an increase in numbers with some much smaller tracks. Spring storms last year stripped parts of the beach of sand making records unreliable. There are still no signs of penguins north of the Beach Rd storm water pipe, though. It doesn’t mean they are not coming ashore, just that they don’t live very long when they do. Dean Scott tells me that when he was a Ranger, the only sign that penguins were in the park was finding the odd dead one. Parts of QE Park would be ideal penguin territory if there were any places to nest safe from dogs and feral cats.
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It would be good to have some idea of the numbers coming ashore at QE Park and The Parade. People who like to jog or walk the dog on the beach in the early morning have a good chance of noticing if there are penguins about. Their prints can be seen when an ebbing tide at first light has left a wide area of smoothed sand. Unlike other sea birds, little penguins don’t meander about on the beach in search of food. Instead they head straight for the sea leaving a characteristic straight track across the beach. These lines are easy to spot however fast you run! So, if you do spot any please let me know at Fieldofficer-nukp@paradise.net.nz.
Several people have told me that there used to be penguins nesting under houses on The Parade. I can’t work out how they used to get up to the road but if you live on The Parade and have a noisy, uninvited guest under your house, I’d be grateful if you’d let me know.
Joe Clarkson