Jeremy continues to spend a large amount of time volunteering with several different agencies to assist endangered bird species. Recently he spent a week in Te Anau helping at a Department of Conservation (DOC) facility that helps rear the native takahe. Once widespread in the South Island, there are only 200 left.
"Mr. Hamilton" roams his sheltered home in tussock grass. He is 18 years old, which is a senior citizen by takahe standards. DOC raises the birds and then releases them into nearby Fiordland National Park.
Gilbert and Ross have successfully chased down a bird, in order to move it to another pen.
Jeremy attempts to stabilize this bird while Ross replaces its radio transmitter.
Jeremy scrubs out a brooder unit. These cubicles will be used in the month of October to hatch eggs and hand-feed hatchlings, which results in higher chick survival rates than in the wild.
A takahe patrols his pen during a late winter snowstorm.
Jeremy also recently spent several days helping locate and count yellow-eyed penguin nests along the beaches.
A penguin crouches on its nest. Volunteers lift up the front of each penguin to count the eggs beneath. Some of the volunteers went home with bloody arms, which gives me comfort that the penguin survival instincts are still intact.
photo by Margaret Suman, YEPT
Jeremy and Leith scan the slope for more nests.
photo by Margaret Suman, YEPT
