27-10-2013

I now know that I am certifiably insane! I have just stood and salted 6 ice-cream tubs of rabbit as bait for the predator traps. Luckily someone volunteered to gut, skin and chop them into quarters for me. I think there was probably about 12 rabbits. At least that should keep us going for this season. Where did I get 12 rabbits you may ask? - today was the Waiau Pig Shoot and the kids got a prize for the heaviest rabbit.

19-10-2013

 We are just recovering from some really bad weather with high winds and lots and lots of rain. The Waiau river spilled its stop bank in one place which made for some early morning phone calls and some hard work by our local contractor. The Mason which wasn't quite so full provide some gravel to fix the hole. The poor old birds must be having a very frustrating time as every time the start to mate the rain comes in and disrupts everything.

The rivers are finally dropping and hopefully the good weather we have had for the last 2 days is helping the birds food supply replenish. It is supposed to be settled for the next few days, so I will hopefully get out and see if any of the birds are still around.

We did manage to get out and check the 10 traps we got down before the rain. Despite the weather we had a result of 2 Pacific Rats and 1 Hedgehog for 16 trap nights. We just need to get some more traps out.

06-10-2013

Well it has been a while since I had time to breath let alone time to write up the blog but today I have made time - mainly because the weather is threatening rain.

Since my last post we have had a considerable amount of rain which caused both the Mason and Waiau rivers to run very hard, fast and full. The Terns nesting rituals were interrupted with a bang as the island they had chosen was covered in water - again. Just when it looked like the weather had stabilised, it is threatening rain again but I hope it won't be quite so bad this time.

Two of the group attended a great workshop on Conservation management of native birds in braided rivers run over 3 days by BRaid. We learnt so much and were given so much information we both came back raring to go and get the traps out. Unfortunately we had to wait for the rivers to drop before we could get out and finally managed to get the first 10 out last Thursday. It was all hands to the traps and with the help of a Quad bike to do the heavy carrying we managed to get them out without incident. We issued a public advisory that the traps were going out in the local weekly newsletter and have had great feedback since with people saying someone should have done this years ago. If only they had.

I am hoping to get out this week and see if I can find the Terns. The Banded Dotterels, Pied Stilts and South Island Pied Oystercatchers are all busy on the Mason. If the weather holds I might get a chance to check for nests this week as well.

It is going to be very hard waiting for the time to pass before we can check the traps but patience is a virtue  and I will just have to wait.

19-09-2013

Everyone except the Wrybill and Black-billed Gulls down on the river today.

 Black fronted Terns

 Paradise Ducks (there was a pair of Grey Ducks as well)

 Pied Stilt and Southern Pied Oystercatcher

Spur winged Plovers

The Banded Dotterel's and the Southern Pied Oystercatchers were busy mating - I refrained from photographs during the act!

Southern Pied Oystercatchers

The Waiau is still to high to go looking for the Black-billed Gulls, but the Black-fronted Terns  were all over the island on the Waiau at the confluence of the Mason.

15-09-2013

Another beautiful day in Waiau.
The river is dropping in these pictures but you can still see it has been very high and very mucky.

The Black-fronted Terns have moved but are still in the area. I just hope that they comeback when the water drops a bit.

The rivercare group had a working bee this morning and we finished the 50 traps and so we are now ready to go as soon as the water drops enough.

08-09-2013

Mary and I walked up the south side of the Waiau on Friday towards Rotherham. The aim was to get past the area where I got stopped last time and see how far we could get. The farmer had been back working and he had removed the bank which stopped me and we went into the tree covered area to find it very boggy and wet and thick with vegetation riverside.

We climb through a fence and walked up the back of a couple of fields to try and get past the boggy area and came back down on to the river only to find the water was right up to the bank and we couldn't get any distance, so we came back.

The only evidence of any wildlife we saw was plenty of rabbit droppings and bird and predator tracks in the mud. The Black-fronted Terns seem to have adopted the island between the Waiau and the Mason where I saw them before but the Gulls had moved on. We think we could see them (the gulls),  on the River Road side of the river and we will try and get up there this week - weather and work permitting.

I was down on the Mason today as the weather was perfect and the Black-fronted Terns were definitely taking off and landing in the area they nested last year as well. I didn't go across as I didn't want to disturb them but I think it will be definitely worth putting traps in this area, as there were plenty of Banded Dotterel's around.  The 2 Spur winged Plovers with chicks that I saw last time had gone, I expect that the chicks had been taken by predators - there were a lot of dog prints in the area as well.

28-08-2013

Look what I saw today

It's a Spur winged Plover chick. There were 2 of them with Mum and Dad on the Mason. Mum was still on the nest so I suspect there are more to come.