Trap monitoring event

Saturday was a typically calm warm Lake Kaniere day, where two teams set out to check the trap lines: one in Sunny Bight consisting of Liz Sawkins and Paul Dunn; the other in Hans Bay consisting of Ian Anderson, Sandy Robbins and myself Malcolm Robbins. I'm kind of new around here - a bit more on that later.  I performed the easy task of removing the lids, while Ian performed the less pleasant task of removing the remains and Sandy kept the community vibe going.

It's kind of strange, looking forward to finding a dead creature in the trap and being disappointed when you do not find anything.  The vision of a future with plentiful bird life is what drives us.

Walking around and servicing approximately 15 traps, plus entering into banter with property owners kept us busy for around 2 hours or so and finished with the two groups meeting at the end for a coffee at Ian's place; photo below.

Left to right: Ian, Malcolm, Sandy, Liz, Paul. Chocolate brownie made by Sue Hustwick - yum!

The statistics are modestly growing and encouraging: 6 rats caught in Sunny Bight and 3 rats plus 1 stoat in Hans Bay on Saturday. (Several more were caught and cleared in recent days, including a very big rat on Hans Islands).

It is thought that, as the traps become further settled (i.e. old) their kill rate will improve.

That'll be a good thing and then of course we'll also want to "spread the love" and get more people involved in checking the lines so we can expand to include the Canoe Cove peninsula and further.

I'm originally from Kumara Junction, back in the 1960's and for the last 40 years have been living in Wellington, finally making the right choice to return home again.  One thing they're doing well in Wellington (no it's not the government) is their predator free programme.  A trip to Kapiti Island off Paraparaumu Beach, Te Rauparaha's old lower North Island stronghold, shows what's possible: it is astonishingly noisy with diverse bird song that once you've experienced it and then venture into other forest sounds lifeless by comparison.   Over the last twenty years the city has picked up the mantle and the suburbs have gone from the tweeting of sparrows to the birdsong of Tui, Keruru (Wood Pigeons) and the squawking of Kaka.  That's the vision I have for Lake Kaniere - we have far better bush than Wellington - now we just need more birdlife.