Egg Bonanza

There's an egg bonanza down in New Zealand as 2009's extraordinary Kakapo Parrot breeding season continues. Deidre Mussen's Ranger diary of February 13th reports 15 fertile eggs out of 29 laid so far.

Four more nests have been found, which brings the season’s grand nest total to 13. However, as previously noted, Nora and Lisa were unceremoniously shut out of their nests after their breeding efforts failed, to encourage them to mate again. But it’s still early days because 24 female kakapo have mated so far – nearly 65% of the breeding-age females on the island – so plenty more nests are expected over the coming days. Fortunately, more kakapo rangers and nest minders arrived on the island this week, helping with the increasing work load.