People pay money for scenic helicopter rides - today I got one for free! DOC uses helicopters for access to difficult areas when large loads are required, and carrying them in is not practicable. Three DOC staff and myself flew into the Pouakai Hut on Mt Taranaki to do some pest work, and also some habitat mapping. On such a beautiful morning the flight in was exhilarating, and the Pouakai Hut has some amazing views over the Taranaki ring plain. This first day I was to spend with Dean, pegging down stoat boxes on about 12km of tracks. We were also collecting evidence of the effectiveness of the recent 1080 operation, and any possible effects on the native wildlife. One species that is vulnerable to 1080 is the fernbird, a fairly secretive bird. It had been thought that numbers could possibly have been affected by the poison. This was dispelled when Dean told me he had never heard so many fernbirds, over such a wide range. We encountered many other birds including tui, tomtits and bellbirds, and more pleasingly, none of the traps had any rats or stoats in them.
We capped off a great day in the field with a night time session playing kiwi calls to try and elicit responses. Although we didn't hear any, apparently it doesn't mean they were not there - apparently this is more effective when the weather is not so good, and the kiwi can't hear us humans crashing around in the bush!
People pay money for scenic helicopter rides - today I got one for free! DOC uses helicopters for access to difficult areas when large loads are required, and carrying them in is not practicable. Three DOC staff and myself flew into the Pouakai Hut on Mt Taranaki to do some pest work, and also some habitat mapping. On such a beautiful morning the flight in was exhilarating, and the Pouakai Hut has some amazing views over the Taranaki ring plain. This first day I was to spend with Dean, pegging down stoat boxes on about 12km of tracks. We were also collecting evidence of the effectiveness of the recent 1080 operation, and any possible effects on the native wildlife. One species that is vulnerable to 1080 is the fernbird, a fairly secretive bird. It had been thought that numbers could possibly have been affected by the poison. This was dispelled when Dean told me he had never heard so many fernbirds, over such a wide range. We encountered many other birds including tui, tomtits and bellbirds, and more pleasingly, none of the traps had any rats or stoats in them.
We capped off a great day in the field with a night time session playing kiwi calls to try and elicit responses. Although we didn't hear any, apparently it doesn't mean they were not there - apparently this is more effective when the weather is not so good, and the kiwi can't hear us humans crashing around in the bush!
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