Conservation activities

It's been a busy week for conservation activities. Last Sunday I had training for the kiwi/weka/morepork listening surveys that are being conducted during May and June. Each listening night starts 30 minutes before sunset and finishes two hours later and all calls from kiwi, weka and morepork are recorded for time, compass bearing and estimated distance. My site is by the gate to the oxidation pond (about 100m from home) and my first listening night was Tuesday, 10 May. I wrapped up warm, took my chair and settled in for the evening. There were plenty of bird calls to begin with, especially ducks and tomtits. I didn't hear any kiwi or weka, but was rewarded for my patience with some morepork 'cree' calls 15 minutes before finish time.

Oxidation pond site - the gate is to the left hand side of pic

Listening nights are held 4-7 days apart on any evening when it's calm and preferably not raining. I was going to do my second night tonight but the southerly front came through too quickly - maybe tomorrow!

Thursday's activity was weeding at the Community Native Plant Nursery down on Horseshoe Bay, a combined project with DOC, the Dancing Star Foundation, SIRCET and local/visiting volunteers. It's a lovely 45 minute walk from home to the nursery via the quarry and then along the beach. It was blowing quite fiercely and it seemed to be a head wind both from the southeast and the northwest! The wind was whipping the spray back from the waves and also picking up sand and blasting it around in mini sandstorms. I picked up a few branches for kindling as I walked home and came close to riding my broomstick as the gusts of wind topped 80 knots!

Friday morning was fine and calm again, just perfect weather for checking two rat lines that I'll now be checking twice weekly. The Halfmoon Bay Habitat Restoration Project (HMBHRP) includes a large-scale trapping operation over 210 hectares. I'm checking about 40 rat traps around Deep Bay, placed every 25m or so. It's a track that I hadn't walked before so surprises around every corner - it runs along Deep Bay, around the point and then up over the ridge. We caught three rats yesterday, two ships and one kiore. All good for my fitness; the round trip (red line) is about 2½ hours of solid walking from home so great exercise as well as keeping the rat population down.

The walk from home (top left) to the rat lines I'm checking (bottom right) - map courtesy of Google Maps
The HMBHRP covers the land to the right of the Golden Bay/Halfmoon Bay School labels