An ex-volunteer and good buddy of mine recently caught up with me and said he absolutely loves the reports but never has the time to read all the great content and images/photos. He suggested the reports start with a summary of the main findings so those like him could quickly read and digest those bullet points, then speed away back to their busy lives. I thought this was a great idea, and the rest of us can read on to immerse ourselves in the full report at our leisure. So this is for you and your busy friends James (aka “no.1 slave” - lol):
● Rodent catches were far higher than the same months of 2021 - attributed to the spike in breeding with the suitable climatic conditions over summer and autumn producing massive food resources for rodents and the like.
● We reduced the rat residual tracking index (how many residual rats are within the reserve) back to 1.3% in May which is very satisfying after all the rodent pressure on our traps and toxin.
● The 33 PFW cameras have been providing excellent intel on species numbers within the reserve, Kiwi are still the lead animal sighted by far, possums were up a bit to 8 detected in May (several of those have been caught since). A few stoats are still at large, but since the May figure of 11 stoats sighted, two have been caught which are important catches at this time of year. The Trust will be conducting another ground based 1080 operation this spring to try and remove those stoats.
● Environmental education visits are starting to happen again after a couple of years affected by Covid.
● New field ranger Tom Grinstead joined the team.
● Long term Trustee John Gardiner stepped down from his trustee position but has remained a vital member of the operations committee.
● The lizard survey results are in with very good gecko numbers caught and observed. Skink observations were the highest on record for the BHCT biennial surveys, but fewer were actually caught in our live lizard traps. Unfortunately the introduced rainbow skink was discovered for the first time at Peach Cove Bay.
● The Trust has a flash new website (breamheadtrust.nz) - we hope you like it!
● We are looking for green fingered volunteers to join (and coordinate if you have the time and are interested) the BHCT/Newbold native plant nursery.
● Kiwi call counts have been conducted in late May/early June all over Whangarei Heads including the 4 sites on the north side of Bream Head. BHCT has also installed two of its acoustics recorders for kiwi call counts in Peach Cove Bay. Results are yet to come in.
There you go James and friends, you can now run away and be busy bumble bees now. For the rest of our readers, put the billy on, sit back and relax as you read on and enjoy an in depth report with great images, information and photos for your viewing pleasure!!
See y'all on the maunga sometime!