No. 25 of our Friends of Flora (FoF) newsletter for April 2006, sent to keep you in touch with our work of bringing the birdlife back to the Flora.

What's my Line? This month foundation FoF-er Wayne Elia brings you, slightly abridged "a dry account of the mechanics of I line 1 to 42" (his words, not mine!) :

This is a section with a high catch history. The line is on a major access roadway to the park on the periphery of our protection area, and it passes through a low saddle in the Arthur Range. I line Team at present is Wayne Elia, Owen Mather, Mike and Marion Day, Ian Newton and family and Muzz Bonna. Each station has a tunnel box containing two Fenn traps and a corflute tunnel holding a "Victor" rat trap. For a time we were operating 5 "Coney Bear" traps which killed a number of possums. These traps were baited to catch cats. They proved capable of catching humans, mostly me. I had them removed on account of the threat they posed to our volunteers, and to the public. I can tell you that having a finger caught poses a problem; both hands would be an impossible situation as the trap is on a robust chain which is fastened at 1metre height to a tree by means of a heavy, barbed staple. That's real job security! When re-baiting we place a white egg and a piece of rabbit in the Fenn box, and spring the rat trap and bait it with peanut butter before resetting it. At even numbered stations we note "indicator" bird species present either visually or audibly. From these observations our bird data is being compiled.

Stations 1 to 11 are on the lower side of the Grahame Valley Road. For this section of the line we have been requested to wear hi-vis vests, display signs at either end and be accompanied by a vehicle a flashing a warning light. The line begins on the first bend after the bluffs on the park boundary on the Grahame Valley Road. The road is benched into a steep hill face which has made the siting of the boxes difficult. Access often involves a vertical drop off the road. Stations 12 to 15 are at the Flora car park.

For preference a party is dropped off at 1 and monitors to 15 whilst the rest of the party begins at trap 16, around 100m past the entrance gate, the parties reuniting before arrival at the Flora Clearing. Doing it this way everything fits in sequence on three monitoring sheets and you can be on your way home by lunch time.

Whio thriving. The wild-reared blue duck/whio juvenile, Maryann, relocated from the Pearse River to the Flora Stream early last month appears to be in good shape and moving up and down a 2 kilometre section of the stream between Upper Junction and upstream of the Horseshoe confluence. The ten Wangapeka "Operation Nest Egg" birds are all present and active, some appearing to be in rude good health. Did you know that wild birds have a longer gut than captive reared birds? This makes our Maryann a more efficient feeder in the higher altitude Flora Stream.

BEGs and MAGs... For those in the trade, this translates as 'black-eyed geckos' and 'Mount Arthur geckos'. Please don't go looking for them (you may disturb their fragile habitat) but the Mt Arthur masif is home to two unusual alpine geckos. Both are relatively new to science. The black-eyed gecko (Hoplodactylus kahutarae) was first recorded from the Kaikoura Ranges in the mid 1980s. Its jet-black eyes distinguish it from all our other gecko species, who have an iris in the form of a vertical slit. Surprisingly, a DoC team turned up further specimens of this gecko on Mt Arthur in 1998. The closest relative to this exclusively alpine lizard is the forest gecko (H. granulatus).

The Mt Arthur gecko, known as Hoplodactylus 'Mt Arthur' because it is yet to be formally described (that is, given species status), is known from only the 1990s from Mt Arthur and much more recently the Mt Owen masif. This little creature is one of a number of 'emerging' alpine species from the South Island high country previously lumped in with the common gecko (H .maculatus).

All are nocturnal and extremely secretive. Research into these tough little critters is being funded by the Kathmandu chain of stores - an informative brochure is available from Kathmandu or your friendly local DoC office.

As many DoC and FoF stoat and rat traps are around or above the bushline high above the Flora, we hope their presence will give these geckos some protection - stoats, rats and even mice all predate on our native lizards.

...and AGMs Not another gecko acronym, but our annual general meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 17 May and should feature an interesting guest speaker. Details and venue will be advertised to this email list and in the local press.

Pests peak (again). FoF's pest kills for March were:

11 stoats (total since Feb 2002 = 301) 52 rats (total = 771) 15 mice (total = 623)

And we don't know how many possums because some March data remains unentered, making the figures above 'provisional only' but already up on the February kill. Full details next month. With winter on the way, from this month on both FoF and DoC will be changing baits in traps every 2nd month, while still checking each month.

More from FoF in May. Check out our website at www.fof.org.nz

Ivan Rogers FoF Committee