Sunday, May 12, 2013

Mount Tamahunga

It was a fun afternoon with Fiona, Josh and  Eliane carrying up the new informative stoat signs that Eliane had made to be positioned on a trap line on the mountain. These were hammered into the ground mainly by Josh who's is eight and had just come from a rugby game in the morning. Well done Josh.

 The eight signs were positioned individually  near  each trap to help explain to walkers what their purpose is. Three dead rats were found in the egg baited traps on our climb up the mountain. We met Richard and his wife complete with fresh free range eggs as they came down resetting the traps and  baiting with fresh eggs. There is an amazing commitment to seriously reducing the pest population in this forest of beautiful native bush so allowing the native species of lizards, frogs and birds to thrive.

Later Eliane showed me all her Excel stats for the trapping lines , it was very impressive. So too was the beautiful bush including some striking Nikau palms. We rather disturbed the bird life with our hammering but saw many kereru and also  heard then later saw, a kaka fly by.