2018 -January update
Upcoming Kiwi Release
Things are coming together for the kiwi release planned for Sunday March 11. The BYK committee is working hard to make sure the release runs smoothly. It will be at Parua Bay on the Ross property behind the community centre – so there will be plenty of parking with a short walk down to the rugby field. I have been visiting landowners down that way and there is plenty of excitement about the release. The release starts at 5.30pm. It is going to be a very busy day as FOMLI are having a special event on Limestone Island beforehand to celebrate sending off the 150th kiwi from the crèche. Emma, Jack and I had a night wander this week and transmitted a couple of kiwi ready for the move, when the weather clears Emma will try and add to that.
Backyard Kiwi Predator Control Programme:
Catches for January in the predator traps:
Stoats 8, Weasels 5, Cats 6, Rats 53, Hedgehogs 17 and 10 possums.
As mentioned in my last update this is the time of year that juvenile stoats disperse so the spike in stoats is expected – all 8 were at the northern end of our trapped area but stoats can quickly reinvade the peninsula. I saw one hunting in a roadside drain at Taurikura Bay recently – he “treed” a rat in the telephone line (see pic). That stoat hasn’t turned up in any of the traps near there yet! Pieter down Campbell road managed to nail a stoat with his air riffle while it was trying to drag away a rabbit he had shot- great shooting!.
Kiwi happenings
It has been great to see good dog control by most of our summer visitors avoiding any known kiwi dog kills and this rain is certainly making it easy for the kiwi to keep well fed. Before the rain came an adult male kiwi turned up drowned in a garden fishpond at Reotahi. He was 2000g and had a bill of 93mm and had no ID chip so was wild hatched and grown. Unfortunately because of the dry conditions the pond was only half full and with slippery polythene sides he couldn’t climb out of. The pond now has an escape ramp. If you have a ground level pond or stock trough (especially if it is an old enamel bath with slippery sides) please stack a few rocks or blocks strategically to enable any kiwi to get out. Also any spring water supplies should be well covered.
With the huge amount of road traffic over summer it is not a surprise that we also had another road killed kiwi – a wild half grown female of 1500g- again no ID chip so also wild hatched and grown. She got hit in the usual area between Mcleods and the Nook turn off – the only 100kph stretch of road at the Heads.
What your radio tracked Backyard Kiwi have been up to:
- Darwin – At the Lamb road quarry. He has finished his second nest, a nest check showed that he had hatched one egg (shell and membrane present) but no sign of the chick, the second egg was rotten which is becoming a bit of a theme with the wet warm weather!
- Lambert – Usual area at Taurikura Ridge. Finished second nest. First chick hatched and gone, second egg very rotten. Did his annual transmitter change, he was down to 1820g after nesting.
- Whitu – Usual area at freezing works ruins, feeding up after nesting.
- EB – In the pampas at Kerr road. He is now 5 years old (so finally fully grown) and after a couple of practice nests hatched his first ever chick – named “Louie” by our proud supporters the EB Firth Trust. He was 250g at about a week old. He has been ID chipped (a small coded chip under his skin) so if he turns up anywhere later in life we will know who he is (see pic) . This nest also had a rotten second egg.
Louie-EB’s 1st chick! - Pakipaki – In the pampas below the Manaia Club, 9.5 hours activity.
ONE program (funded by Kiwis for Kiwi):
Only the Boxer has re-nested at the moment with a hatch due about now.
Cheers
Todd Hamilton
Backyard Kiwi Project Manager
Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum
M 021 1145 385