Category: Conservation

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Pest Monitoring

Monitoring Tunnel (S6) Selwyn Bush 24 March 2114

Monitoring cards Selwyn Bush March 2014
Monitoring cards Selwyn Bush March 2014

Selwyn Map

MY IDs: Using this guide
S1 –
S2 Rat
S3 Rat & Hedgehog
S4 Hedgehog
S5 Mouse
S6 Mouse & Rat (confirmed by Camera Trap)
S7 –
S8 Rat
S9 Rat
S10 –

This gives us a an Autumn result for 2014 of 56% Rat, 22% Mice, and 22% Hedgehog.

Wax Tags
Wax Tags Small
These are only ones with marks, note S10 had no wax tag. I assume because of the ink markings and camera data they were both mouthed by rats. I am surprised there is any wax left on S6 given the amount of times the rats ran unto/past the tag (camera observations). On further inspection I think S6 is the only conclusive rat bite. Next time we should leave these out for 7 nights.

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Shore Plover on the road

Seen at the very end of West Tamaki Rd. It was quite scary with unleashed dogs as well as cars to keep at bay. I called DOC and they said to scare him off.
Seen at the very end of West Tamaki Rd. It was quite scary with unleashed dogs as well as cars to keep away. DOC asked me to scare it away.
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Shell Drop

Shell DropAwesome day building a shell habitat for Fairy Terns in the Kaipara.

Also made some signs
Fairy Tern Nest Site

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Philosophy

I found this old thing on my hard-drive. Might help me get focused.Why I should dedicate some serious time to Biodiversity
I think the obvious answer is a wetland because those environments were hardest hit buy farmers. Tho interestingly I do not know much about threatened wetland species. Our rivers and shorelines face a lot of commercial & recreational pressure. A wetland also sits at an interesting intersection:

  • When I visit forests I hear a lack of quality in the silence (lack of bird life)
  • When I drive through the countryside I see a lack of quality in the monotonous monocultures.
  • When I kayak in NZ, the water feels empty. I think for me — quality is biodiversity and the water is overfished and often polluted.

It would be magic if I could fill all three buckets with one hose.

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Decoy (failed)

After a great start at Point England I have ended the season with nothing fledged. The Dots have now left the paddock as the grass has grown too long, the farmer says he was understocked.

EGGS 10
CHICKS 8
FLEDGED 0

So what happened to the chicks? I have never seen any cats and I have looked for them at night and with the camera trap. I got to the point where dog owners are policing other dog owners about staying out of the paddock so pretty safe there. When an OSNZ member came by the paddock to do the count she saw Pukeko attack and kill a Dotterel chick. In an effort to record this behaviour I tried making a decoy.

Decoy Dotterel

A Black Back Seagull circled it but it did not land.

UPDATE: Second attempt with crouching dot and upgraded makeup… also failed. Maybe they are less aggressive when not breeding.
Decoy Two

Disinterested Pukeko

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Revive our Gulf

Pretty proud to be helping with this project. A little bit of coms strategy and photography but mostly branding, visualisation and web work so far.

Revive our Gulf
Without the filtering power of mussel reefs the waters of the Hauraki Gulf have become murkier and more vulnerable to the effects of inappropriate/poorly managed land.

 

 

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Invisible Nests

It took me so long to find this one. So far none of the chicks have survived. All signs point to Pukekeko killing them. An OSNZ member even saw it happen when they did the census in the paddock.
It took me so long to find this one. So far none of the chicks have survived. All signs point to Pukekeko killing them. An OSNZ member even saw it happen when they did the census in the paddock.
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Dead Chick

Yay a new nest
Yay a new nest
(2 days later) 1 Dead :(
(2 days later) 1 Dead 🙁
Sibbling
Sibbling
Off to the museum
Off to Auckland Museum
Wow look at the variety in coloration and size of these dotterel eggs
Wow look at the variety in coloration and size of these dotterel eggs
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Dotterel Chick

Dotterel Chick

I now have two nests that have hatched in the paddock. This chick is 3 weeks old, locals including the Tamaki Model Airplane Club have been incredibly supportive.