However, some were saved after they wandered from the rocks at the base of the Oamaru Harbour wharf and into a Waterfront Rd car park used by visitors stopping for a look at the largest colony of Otago’s only endemic seabird.
Oamaru Department of Conservation (Doc) ranger Tom Waterhouse said he contacted staff at the nearby Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony when the chicks wandered into the car park.
He said Doc would intervene when wildlife was being harassed by humans, severely injured, or vulnerable to being hit by a vehicle or otherwise harmed by people — but Doc did not always step in.
"It’s trying to minimise our intervention as well."
Four species of shags are regularly seen on the wharf — Otago shags, spotted shags, pied shags and little shags — and white-fronted terns and red-billed gulls were also spotted on the wharf on Thursday.
Doc biodiversity ranger Brad Edwards, of Geraldine, said fledgling spotted shags, which nest in the cliffs of nearby Cape Wanbrow from now through to Christmas, also resulted in calls to the Doc hotline. After leaving the nest about 62 days after hatching, spotted shag "practice flights around Oamaru" resulted in several "juveniles crash landing in town or who have needed to be rescued from difficult spots".
"Doc appreciates the community awareness and support of the young birds during this fledging period. Having the chance to see the birds take their first flight is one of the highlights of living in one of the seabird capitals of the world," he said.
Last week, 10 roughly 2-month-old Otago shag chicks attracted the attention of tourists on the rocks at the base of Sumpter Wharf.
And though they could neither fly nor feed, Dunedin-based researcher Dr Chris Lalas said the chicks could survive if their parents found them and fed them.At least two chicks remained at the base of the wharf on Thursday.
Otago shags started to nest on the 200m-long Sumpter Wharf in 2014 after the wharf was closed to traffic in 2004.
