Little penguins peer out of one of the 350 nesting boxes at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony yesterday. Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony science and environmental manager Dr Philippa Agnew said where the birds were protected, the species was doing well. ''They're nesting in a disused quarry - they're trespassing in our quarry,'' he said. At the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony there was a long-term average 8% to 9% increase in breeding pairs - ''a really good growth rate''. Last season the tourism colony equalled its historic high of 189 breeding pairs at the old quarry site and this year it could break it.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 17, 2019 16:30 UTC