WHLF Backyard Kiwi July 2014 report
funded by the NRC 
 




Another busy month with plenty of significant happenings:





Manaia Pest Control:


The combined WHLF, NRC, Doc, Kiwi Coast pest control project for Mt Manaia
continues to rock on. 



Over 50 hard working folks have been involved in the two Saturday pre-feed
operations and then the follow up of careful 1080 toxin placement in bait
stations. Martin has organised these events to go like a well oiled machine.
It has been fantastic to see everyone come off Mt Manaia after a hard day’s
work with satisfied smiles on their faces knowing that they have done a
great job to look after a very special place.



We monitored the bait take and it all points to a very successful operation
that should not only deal to possums and rats but also clean out the stoats 
there.

We should be in for a boomer year for kiwi chick survival this
season, along with all the other flora and fauna benefits.



All the toxin not eaten by pests has now been carefully removed and Martin
plans to do some follow up monitoring with pre-feed. The poisoned possum
and rat bodies in the bush still pose a risk to dogs for the next few
months.



A get together celebration is planed for Sunday 24 August at the Hunts’ shed
at 4pm.

BYK will have the full story and photos on our website explaining the project sharing information gathered from this awesome project
We’ll send you a link when it goes online 
later this month by email and Face Book

Kiwi Call Count:


Overall the number of calls per hour per station was 6.8, up slightly from
last season’s 6.4 and the number of individual kiwi identified extrapolates
out to a population of over 500. Considering that breeding conditions were
less than ideal this autumn the results indicate the ongoing progress of 
kiwi recovery at the Whangarei Heads – something that we can all be proud 
of.





Kiwi Predator Control Programme:


As expected the traps are pretty quiet at this time of year. 

Trap catches for July: 1 stoat, 2 weasels, 0 cats, 42 rats, 6 Hedge Hogs, 11
possums. 

This doesn’t take into account the effect of the Manaia toxin work which has
taken out an estimated 3000 rats!!!





Dogs:


Unfortunately we have had some new dog owners move into the area who have
not followed the lead of the locals, who are on the whole great at
controlling their pets. One of the new owners has 32 dogs!!! We have been
working with Doc and Environmental Northland ENL (the pound) to deal with
the wandering dogs. If you see a wandering dog please ring ENL on 4387513.







Radio Tracked Kiwi at Whangarei Heads:
Nesting is in full swing. What your radio tracked Backyard Kiwi have been up
to:




Waka - North of usual area at Mckenzie Bay. High activity of
11.5hrs and moving quite a bit. He may be looking for replacement mate for
the drowned Charlotte. 



Darwin – In pampas at Lamb road quarry. Nesting 10 days on
29/7/14. Activity is good and low for 10 days nesting at 4 hours.


JR – South Taurikura Ridge. Nesting – 39days on 29/7/14, 3hrs 
activity.


Lambert - Usual area east side of Taurikura Ridge. Nesting. 32
days on 23/7/14, 4 hrs activity.



Whitu – usual area – Reotahi. Activity 11 hrs.


Charlie – usual area at Craig Road. 1st nest lasted approx 13
days. He is now re-nesting – 14 days on 22/7/14 and activity is better this
time at 5hrs (11 hours last nest).

Dallas – usual area McGregors Bay- as suspected his 1st nest
near the sewage pumping station had failed before his transmitter triggered
into incubation mode – I found dud egg there. He is now re-nesting across
the road, which at least is away from the footpath. 45 days on 29/7/14,
3hrs activity.

Lucky -Taurikura Ridge. Activity variable – down to 4 hours
some nights – so he may be starting to nest.







Funding Reports:
June 30 is the end of the financial for some of our funders. We completed
final reports to both the Kiwis for Kiwi Trust and the Kiwi Coast to outline
how we had spent their funding of our work.



The WHLF Backyard Kiwi report is included as part of the annual Kiwi Coast
Report at: 


http://www.kiwicoast.org.nz/kiwi-coast-annual-report-2014/





The Pride of NZ Awards
:

We won!

I was humbled to be nominated to represent the community kiwi recovery at
Whangarei Heads for the Pride of NZ awards by an anonymous nominator (turns
out it was Gail Green from Parua Bay School). After getting through the
Northland round the Northern Regional Awards were held in Auckland last
night. Heather Hunt, Helen and Jack Hamilton attended to represent us and
received the award on our behalf and featured in today’s Herald.





The National Awards are to be held in September. I was a bit worried
initially about accepting the nomination but it is great publicity for the
Whangarei Heads kiwi and community kiwi recovery work in general. I’m very
proud of what we have achieved. 







Cheers 




Todd Hamilton 



Backyard Kiwi Project Manager,