Heaps happening at the moment.

Backyard Kiwi Predator Control Programme
Catches for October in the predator traps:
Stoat 0, Weasels 5, Cats 6, Rats 59, Hedgehogs 12 and 6 possums.
The new stoats (born in September) will be on the move soon so now is a good time to spruce your traps up – if you need a hand, replacement traps or more salted rabbit lure please let me know.

What your radio tracked Backyard Kiwi have been up to:

Darwin – Has finished nest –he really put his back into it and was still in the same pampas bush over a month after hatching the first chick. I had a trial camera on the nest that took hundreds of 30 second videos of the activity there.
Heather Hunt and Mereana Wilkie have taken that footage and skilfully created a short video story of Darwin’s nest Have a look, it is pretty cool.

Lambert – Usual area at Taurikura Ridge. He has finished nesting and back up to 8.5 hours of nightly activity.

Whitu – He has finished his nest at Reotahi and is back up to 9 hours activity.

Dallas – No more shots of Dallas from the Hill’s “bucket cam” but I keep checking.

EB – His nesting attempt failed after about 40 days so this young fella is still getting the hang of being a kiwi dad. He has moved quite close to the road at Kerr road so please be careful when driving there or walking your dog.

Tindall – He has moved to the NW side of Manaia and when I caught up with him recently he was deep in a hollow puriri so no chance of changing his transmitter. I will try again soon.

ONE program (funded by Kiwis for Kiwi):

The ONE dads at Rarewarewa have had a good round of breeding with 7 chicks transferred to Limestone Island and 4 dads have already starting nesting again! All that rain had to be good for something! The dads that Rolf from Doc monitors have also been hatching plenty of chicks – one day recently between us we collected 7 new chicks for transfer to the safe hands of Emma and Jono at Limestone.

The Acrobat -.usual area. Lovell’s’ bush – he has finally started nesting after a break since the spring of 2014..

Waimarie – Hatched 1 chick – LC1607, second egg was a dud. He has re-nested already.

Ngutu Roa – Activity of 9.5 hours and hiding in deep burrow.

Sancho – Hatched 1 chick – LC1608, second egg was partially developed but rotten..

CFU – Has finished nesting. His second chick (LC1606) went missing and may have been washed away by the stream that flooded beside the nest site.

Ray – After his early season nest failing this old guy has re-nested and is due to hatch around xmass.

The Boxer – He has also re-nested and hatch again due around xmass.

Upcoming Kiwi Release

As part of our combined ONE work (BYK, BHCT, TLC, Tanekaha LC, Kiwi Coast and funder Kiwis for kiwi) Tutukaka Landcare Coalition is hosting a Kiwi Release at Tawapou nursery 6pm on Friday November 18.

Other happenings

Some bastard has stolen the BYK sign at the Manaia Excavators depot again!! They must have really wanted it because it was very firmly bolted on that oversized post – this is the third time that it has been flogged!.

On the very positive side Parua Bay School have raised $576 for their kiwi through a huge cake stall on the Kiwis for kiwi morning tea theme- thanks to Gail Green and her team. I visited the school with a couple of memory sticks of footage of Darwin and his chicks to show on the big screen – the kids are going to come up with a name for one of the chicks.

Heather has been working on some new kiwi characters for my new white ute because it certainly doesn’t have the profile of the old ute. We are very thankful for the support of our Proud supporters that allows funding for things like this – so don’t forget to support our supporters http://www.backyardkiwi.org.nz/kiwi-and-community/proud-supporters .

The Tindall Foundation are also great supporters of Kiwi recovery in Northland (and many other things too!). Recently they released their annual report with a video that included BYK http://www.tindallannualreport.org.nz/

And if you want learn how to catch more pests Ross Road Landcare Group are hosting a trappers’ day this Sunday 6 November 1-4pm (see flyer) – organised by Ngaire Tyson of Kiwi Coast and she has some clown called Todd speaking. So might see you there.

Cheers

Todd Hamilton

Backyard Kiwi Project Manager

Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum

M 021 1145 385
E hamiltont@maxnet.co.nz