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Friends of Flora - Community helping Conservation |
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Newsletter 51 - June 2009
Welcome to issue 51 of the Friends of Flora (FoF) newsletter, bringing you again news of our efforts to bring the birdsong back to the Flora. It’s a big job and we need to do it well, so the FoF committee has decided to take a close look at how we can best use our people "on the hill" each month. So…. Calling line leaders. It’s time to take look at who is doing what trap lines and how our volunteers can be best utilised. So if you
please turn up to a special FoF meeting to be held at DOC Motueka (cnr High and King Edward Sts) 10.30am Saturday 11 July. We will also go over the reporting and other responsibilities of these roles. And calling kea counters. Do you or your family and friends visit outdoor locations in the South Island during winter? Are you able to make simple recordings on any Saturday or Sunday during July? Do you know of anyone else who may be interested in helping out? Asks the Kea Conservation Trust who are looking for volunteers for kea counting for their second annual survey. This is the sort of thing that excites many FoF-ers, so please contact Bill at bill@bushandbeyond.co.nz who will liaise with the Trust and provide you with a winter survey registration form
California Quail
Although on the final Flora twitch list (FoF newsletter 43) California quail are, unsurprisingly, seldom encountered along the traplines in the Flora. One spotted in March on the polled route between the Mt Arthur hut and the start of P Line must have, at some stage, passed through a sizeable tract of beech forest to get there! The state bird of California, this handsome quail was introduced from 1862 onwards. This sadly coincided with the extinction of New Zealand’s own quail, the koreke. AGM The FoF AGM was held on a bitterly cold night in May which unfortunately, kept a lot of people away. Maryann Ewers in her Chairperson’s speech noted another successful year and one in which some hard work on the hill was matched with some hard work around the table in settling the FoF/DOC Memorandum of Understanding and Safety Management Plan. Special thanks was singled out for the line leaders without whom in Maryann’s words "there wouldn’t be any hope for the birds in the Flora..." Guest speaker Debs Martin of Forest and Bird gave an inspiring presentation on the Mokihinui River, at risk from Meridian Energy’s plans to dam its gorge with a massive 85m high dam. Check this out at http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/campaigns/save-mokihinui-damn-dam Titch: Our unsung Hero Unsung no more! Maryann Ewers writes: As well as being one on FoF's regular monitors,Titch Klement has the extra job of looking after our gear shed in Lower Moutere. Many FoF volunteers have commented on the tidiness of our gear shed and how everything is in place and replenished. He also cleans up any old traps and boxes when brought out, and ensures all possum lures are cleaned and rebaited. He is one of our founding members. Thanks again Titch! New bait trail FoF are conducting a trial of the stoat bait Erayz#8 in alternate traps along the front section of I Line. Erayz is a non-toxic mustelid lure made of pure rabbit. DOC are also trialing its use on the Pearse River trap line. It’s early into the trial, but if the new bait proves successful, it may be the end of the days of messy smelly eggs. 1080 drop will help Flora birds Also, warning signs are in place for the next 6 months at the Flora carpark and other eastern entrances to Kahurangi after an aerial 1080 drop conducted by contractors to the Animal Health Board. Completed on 19 June, the knock down of possums and rats and subsequent by-kill of stoats is good news for the birds and all the native creatures and plants of the Flora. Like the enormous scarlet mistletoe 20m before the A22 tag on the right side of A Line facing uphill and about 10m into the bush, which will appreciate not being browsed by possums. Pest Parade May 2009’s trap catch was: Stoats –5 (total 532 since Feb 2002) Rats – 18 – (total 1804) Mice – just one (total 850) Possums – 6 (total 419 since June 2004) For the same period last year, we got 10 stoats, 29 rats, a single mouse and 6 possums. Encouragingly, our total kills for the past year are down in all departments. From the same number of traps we caught 26 fewer stoats, 150 fewer rats, 10 fewer mice and 44 fewer possums. Maybe that’s why visitors to the Flora are able to write to us along these lines… Thanks from Vicki " Thanks for all your work in the Mt Arthur area. As a regular tramper I have never seen so many birds as I did on the Mt Arthur – Tablelands – Flora Saddle circuit. Keep up the good work" wrote Vicki Logan of Wellington recently.And thanks to Anne of wedowebsites who are renewing our http://www.fof.org.nz domain name for us at no cost. That’s it for this edition. Remember, monitoring is the last two weekends of each month and June, like August is a check only, so no bait change is required. Keep your wits about you in the bush and on the tops and make sure you take enough warm and waterproof clothing. Ivan Rogers, FoF committee |
