During monitoring yesterday, colony staff found the first egg of the season under a 10-year-old female, one half of a pair of "experienced breeders".
Based on data from the previous quarter-century, the June 28 start was "slightly earlier" than the July 16 long-term median average for the first eggs at the colony, colony research scientist Philippa Agnew said.
Dr Agnew this year started tracking the birds' pre-breeding behaviour and "given that all the tracking devices show us that the birds are foraging really close, I'm not all that surprised that they have started laying earlier than average," she said.
Dr Agnew said she hoped this was not another false start: the 10-year-old female was paired with a male banded as an adult in 2005 and estimated to be 15 years old.
"They're experienced breeders," Dr Agnew said. "This will be their fourth season together."
The pair laid their first egg on July 24 last year. As little penguins can lay a second clutch of two eggs three months later, when the chicks fledge, a second set of eggs was laid in November, and the two birds fledged four chicks last breeding season.
The birds were "regular double breeders".
Little blue penguins lay a clutch of two eggs, but the eggs are laid about three or four days apart. For now, the Oamaru pair had just one egg but the second was expected in the next few days.
Last year, when there were 189 breeding pairs at the colony, a third of the colony's birds had a double brood.
And with the colony averaging a 9% growth over the long term, this year's breeding season could produce a milestone.
"We might get to 200 [breeding pairs] this year ... that would be awesome."
