Tony Bouzaid reports on the progress of his robin rehabilitation programme in the Glenfern Sanctuary area of Port FitzRoy.

AT THE END OF JANUARY we thought we had come to the end of our robin-breeding season. When Rebecca left us on 9th January she had banded 19 chicks and we still had one in the nest at B45, the only one of 3 eggs that hatched. Suzie Bettany (ex Wildlife International) started working with us a few days before and the chick should have been ready for banding within a few days. However when Suzie checked the chick it was under nourished and wasn’t ready for banding. The male had stopped feeding the female and was being antagonistic towards her. Suzie kept feeding the female so that the chick would get more food. Unfortunately when she checked again a few days later the chick had gone and we presumed it had been predated by a morepork, as a rat leaves telltale signs.

On the 15th January Suzie found that our black petrel pair had returned and laid an egg in their burrow under the puriri tree. We checked the band to ensure the bird on the nest was one of the original parents and we set up sticks at the entrance to the burrow to wait for the parents to swap incubation. On the 18th, just before Suzie left we found the parents had swapped over and she pulled out the petrel and established that it was the other original parent. On checking the nest and seeing no egg Suzie reached in and pulled out a petrel chick a few days old! We were thrilled particularly considering that the last 2 years had seen 2 eggs laid but failed. One was infertile and the other the embryo had died broaching the egg. I have named the new chick Suze, in honour of her founder, trying to be generic, as it is impossible to tell whether the bird is male or female. Now we have to protect it from predators until fledging which should be in early May.

The first female to produce chicks at Q15 nested again with her partner of the last two nestings and had one chick and one egg in the nest now near Q14. With the help of Andrew Nelson from the Zoo over here for a meeting with the Department of Conservation we banded the chick on the 17th February.

When Adam Salmon checked for our robins at L57 on a windy day he couldn’t find either bird. This is the pair that nested on the ground twice, the first time losing the eggs to morepork and the second time getting 3 chicks banded and fledged. We assumed that we had lost the female when she hadn’t been seen from the 26th December through to the 19th January. However on 16th February Adam and I found not only the male and female but also an unbanded juvenile, which was a great thrill. She must have had her nest so well hidden and didn’t stray from it when Rebecca and Suzie were searching. This brings our total of fledged robins to 21.