Mataia Restoration Project Newsletter

March 2015

HELLO family, friends and supporters of the Mataia Restoration Project (MRP) HAPPY NEW YEAR. Yes, it is that long since we have sent you a newsletter to let you know what has been happening here at Mataia! Not only have we, and many others, been busy but

Kiwi at Mataia – have been busy! Charlie and Taranaki were the breeding stars of the 2014/2015 breeding year and we have video footage of definitely 3 and possible 4 of their offspring. We now realise how fortunate we are with these two nesting in such observable positions. We also had cameras set up on Totara, Ako and Twisty’s nests but this is an example of what we were trying to do.

Totara’s front (?), back(?), side(?) door

We did manage to get footage of a Totara offspring making his way through the reeds out of this nest! Kevin managed to actually see an Ako’s offspring when he went to check the nest after Ako had left. But we had absolutely no luck with Twisty. Even Pete Graham and his dog Rua decided he had made such a good job of hiding his nest we wouldn’t disturb him

Somewhere in here is Twisty’s nest!

The good thing to remember is that these are only the transmitted males and there are 5 un-monitored males running around who we have no idea of what they have been up to. But maybe we will soon find out - – well maybe not this year as the young kiwi don’t start calling until they are at least 6 months old.

In May it is Kiwi Listening Week again. Last year we put out two acoustic recording devices and Pete

Graham kindly analyzed the results for us. We’ll do the same again this year – much more trustworthy than two old sets of ears! We continue to catch the transmitted kiwi at various times to check and change transmitters. Earlier in March, Pete Graham and Rua, Di Frazer and Kevin and I were joined by Sue Cameron for a successful kiwi catching day. Sue is a volunteer for Tamahunga Trappers, who hope to reintroduce kiwi to thier maunga soon.

If you would like to come to join us to assist with kiwi catching please do let us know as we are always looking for helpers.

More kiwi coming to Mataia On April 20 Pete Graham will lead a bunch of fit capable people in yet another kiwi catching expedition to Motuora Island. This will be our last translocation because we will hopefully have our full complement of 40 birds – our founder population here at Mataia. All going well we will have kiwi coming back to Mataia on mid- morning of Tuesday 21st April.

We will not be having any formal occasion this year but if you would like to join us, we would love to see you. The kiwi will be displayed by approved kiwi handlers so that you will be able to see them up close.

We have several people to host who have earned the naming rights to a bird, or won a school competition so once again, only these people will be invited out to the bush to put the kiwi into their temporary burrows. There will be cups of tea and coffee available, and if you would like to bring a picnic lunch to have in the garden you are most welcome. More details will follow but keep the date free.

Our only request – that you do let us know if you would like to come and an email address so that I can contact you if there are any plan changes due to weather/no kiwi etc etc!

Research Julie finished her report on the research she did at Mataia last year – Dispersal pattern of translocated male North Island brown kiwi compared to established male kiwi at Mataia

So this is why we no longer have maps showing where each kiwi has travelled. All of the monitored birds now stay within quite defined areas. The average area where Julie found the 2013 males during this time was only 1.3ha! For the 2104 males it was 4.3ha but this was just after they were released. We are very fortunate to live in the middle of Ako and Pare’s territory and most nights hear them calling to each other at very close range!

Pest and Predator Control- the ongoing battle - This is why!

The top prints are kiwi; the one in the middle of photo, probably a stoat and the others a rat

Julie did a wonderful job over the summer, too. Her first job was to audit all our traps – to make sure they go off at the correct weight. We don’t mind catching mice but we would prefer to catch mustelids or rats. Over the summer months the traps must be checked every two weeks as this is the most active time for stoats, the biggest threat to kiwi chicks. Some trapping results from:- Oct 1 2014 - Feb 28 2015 Jan 1 2008 – Feb 28 2015 ( 7 years) Possums 19 1145 Weasels 7 115 Stoats 18 81 Rats 61 518 Hedgehogs 19 99 Cats 10 67 Mice only 5 In addition Julie continued with our trapping effort on neighboring properties where we now have over 100 traps out. The other very exciting happening on the Pest and Predator scene is that all our trapping data is now being recorded on a cloud based data management system called Catchit which is being developed by students at Auckland University. (Thanks especially to Rachel and Sumil!)

Volunteers. We are very fortunate to have Year 10 students from Kings College back again to help at Mataia this year. The first group arrived on February 6. Julie, the students and their supervisors successfully opened up a new bait station line, installed the bait stations and filled them. The next group who came on March 6th, labelled rat boxes, fixed rat traps to them so that they are inaccessible to long kiwi bills, and then carried them into the bush, placed them 50m apart and GPS’ed that position and set them. This activity was followed by a walk around the canopy track to check the rat traps there. A very fresh rat in the first traps was a great incentive to check the rest. We are looking forward to welcoming three groups of volunteers to Mataia this year. Students and staff from The School for Field Studies based in Queensland Australia will be with us from 16th to 18th June. This is a big group who will be shared between Mataia and CUE Haven. Part of their reason for visiting NZ is educational, but they also like to contribute to environmental project where they can. It is in the middle of planting season so no prizes for guessing one activity they will be doing for us! In addition we have arranged to host two groups of International Student Volunteers, once again shared between CUE haven and Mataia. 6 -9 students and a supervisor will be here from 30 May-12 June and from 27 June -10 July .Once again planting time!! Which leads to…………………..

Preparing for the Winter Planting Season. With the assistance of the Auckland Council’s Rodney Natural Heritage Fund we have now completed the fencing of the wetlands of a tributary of the Omaumau Stream.

The green lines, fenced 2015 and the blue lines fenced 2014, outline the wetlands. (SH 16 is the road to the right of the fences) The area is approximately 4ha or 8 years of planting at the rate we are going – arghhhhhh! But we still must finish the Mataia Stream so we have a few Planting Days lined up for our keen and eager volunteers. If you are able to come to any one of these days, then once again we promise

food, friendship and fun.

Possibly not dry and possibly not clean!

Tauhoa TfS Planting on Friday 19th June Friends and Family Planting on Saturday 4th July (rain date Sunday 5th July)

(dinner, bed and breakfast also available at no cost!)

Meadowbank TfS Planting on Wednesday 8th July

We’d love to see you if you can make it.

Visitors:- Marion Leth, who is a tutor at the Ahwina Centre, brought her students from Northtec’s Sustainable Rural Development Course to visit the Mataia gardens and our re-vegetation plantings. It was wonderful to meet both Marion and all her students and to discover many links between our families. We are looking forward to working together more closely with Marion and her team.

Marion, 4th from left with her students at Mataia Gail Farrell from Trees for Survival came to check out both TfS plantings and was very impressed, not only with last year’s plantings but with former years as well. Roger Milne, National Manager TfS and Sue Crawshay, Auckland Council’s TfS Coordinator, brought two representatives from TfS sponsors, Accor Hotels. Each time a guest chooses to re-use a towel, rather than have a fresh one, the cost of laundering is given to TfS – a great way for the hotel and its guests to contribute to TfS. Mel Galbraith and other members of the Auckland Ornothological Society came primarily to check out our fern birds. Needless to say it wasn’t until we got to the bach and started to track the kiwi that the fernbirds on our “front lawn” responded to the clicking! Michael Taylor gave a most interesting account of some very early attempts he was involved in to translocate kiwi from areas that were under enormous development pressure in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. This was before it was understood how vulnerable the kiwi were to mustelids and dogs. Unfortunately none of these populations survived but knowing we are walking in the footsteps of such dedicated people is very humbling.

What else have we been up to? Atuanui Auckland Council’s possum control operation is now almost complete with most residual trap counts now less than 3.5%. Stuart Rogers has started preliminary work checking out and cleaning traps that are there and finding his way around Atuanui again. Soon he will be joined by members of Ngati Whatua o Kaipara to put our possum traps so that the population is never allowed to build up to such destructive numbers again.

The Forest Bridge Trust, We have been continuing to pour our time into The Forest Bridge Trust, an initiative to help support farmers between the Kaipara and the east coast who have native flora and fauna on their properties that they would like to protect, but have the no means to do so. Most of our Strategic Plan is complete. We are very grateful to Auckland Council for supporting us by financing Annette Lees to take us through the process. We are on the brink of launching CatchIT –Schools and once again the Rodney Local Board (Auckland Council) has supported us by providing funding for traps. Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter. We very much appreciate your support.

Gill , Kevin and the Mataia Restoration Project Team

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