Emperor Penguin at Peka Peka, Kapiti Coast

[philbattley]

This message was circulated to OSNZ Wellington members earlier today.

The Ornithological Society of New Zealand

Wellington Region

Allan Tennyson phoned this morning to advise that Colin Miskelly and himself
have confirmed the presence of a young alive Emperor penguin on the beach at
Pekapeka, near Waikanae. It appears to be young bird in good health. It
may or may not stay long so go so if you want to see it you may like to have
a look.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Armitage

RR Wellington

[tim]

This one's already made it onto stuff
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/5172 ... -at-Kapiti

[Colin Miskelly]

Hi folks

It has taken a while to get to a keyboard, but looks like our phone calls and txts got the message out (even though Ian Armitage was in South-east Asia!). My former DOC colleagues reported a large penguin (1 km south of Peka Peka Beach roadend). The site is accessible, and we soon discovered that several people had reported it to media, as DomPost and Stuff photographers and reporter arrived while Alan Tennyson (Te Papa), Peter Simpson and Richard Gill (both from DOC) and I were there.

Apparently there was a report of a large penguin splashing in water at Paraparaumu yesterday afternoon. It had moved north to Peka Peka by sunset, where it was reported to DOC. The bird is in good condition, though has not eaten for a while (green droppings). It started to get heat stressed (splayed flippers and feet), and moved to water's edge where it ate wet sand (probably thought it was snow and would melt).

It was still there at 1 pm. Plus 31 shore plover at Plimmerton on the way home.

You'll see more if you follow the Stuff link above.

Colin Miskelly

emperor2.jpg (43.66 KiB) Viewed 3711 times

[Byrd]

wow, if anyone's heading up there from Wellington tomorrow to look and doesn't mind giving me a lift, my mobile number is 027 877 5931. I'm in Tawa.

Israel

[Michael Szabo]

I'm also keen to hitch a ride from Wellington to see it tomorrow if anyone is going from here and has room for me - happy to pay petrol, of course. If I can't then I'm planning to head up there on the train early in the morning, so would appreciate any directions on the best way to get to the penguin's last known location from Waikanae railway station.
Happy birding!
Michael

[Brent Stephenson]

Nooooooooo!! Too far to get back from Denmark!

[Colin Miskelly]

A DOC staff member has reported that the bird is still there this morning. With a large crowd of admirers.

Colin

[ledzep]

Confirming Emporer Penguin still there lying on sand above high tide mark about 50 metres south of the Peka Peka road entrance to the beach. Yes, lots of admirers! Waited for it to stand up, but it didn't this morning (as at 8.30 am). Was told it was first seen there on Monday, and has been slowly moving north up the beach.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Count the people! Is this NZ's biggest twitch?

[Byrd]

there were about thirty when I was there but there was a lot of coming and going as well as new people turned up. The biggest "twitch" I've been at prviously (if you can call it that, given that two of the attendees were passing City Council workers) was five at the wood duck in Chch a few weeks back.

I went up on the train with Michael Szabo to see the penguin. If anyone else is likewise using public transport, the #290 bus goes from the Waikanae Station and stops at the highway end of Pekapeka Road and its only about 2km to the beach from there. The bus only passes in the morning and afternoon though (see the metlink website). Otherwise a taxi from Waikanae is about $20-25.

Met a few other birders there which was nice.