For a flightless bird, our Coromandel brown kiwi made a grand entrance from the sky yesterday morning as it was flown by helicopter onto Motutapu Island where conservationists hope its population will thrive. Five Coromandel Brown kiwi were released yesterday onto predator free Motutapu Island, in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. The translocation is part of a genetic diversification programme …
Every year a bunch of students come up from Bay of Plenty Polytech to help us monitor fernbirds, rodents & invertebrates in our Waikawau Bay Wetland project. This year we hosted 25 students, with the trip counting towards part of a 2 year diploma in Environmental Management. So what does monitoring fernbirds entail? A few good sets of ears. The …
Students from Mercury Bay Area School helped carry in rat and stoat traps for the Coromandel Coastal Walkways conservation group. The boxes were made by Terry Whitehouse, a Moehau Environment Group volunteer. Last Wednesday the sun came out for the bunch of Year 11 and 12 students, who got to spend a morning outdoors carting in trap boxes, and experiencing …
This winter we have proof that Kiwi are calling throughout our Coromandel Kiwi Project. Audio recordings reveal kiwi calling at three sites within the predator controlled area. The recordings show we have a population of kiwi surrounding Coromandel town, with both male and females heard. Of the four monitoring sites, kiwi were heard at three, with the Kennedy Bay Hill …
On a stormy morning during August seventeen children from Colville School came up to Waikawau Bay to help plant trees. Over the space of a couple of hours they got their hands dirty and planted 60 pohutukawa trees in our Children’s forest. Natalie Collicott, Coordinator for Moehau Environment Group, was impressed with the energy of this year’s group. “The enthusiasm …
The Coromandel has the highest survival rate for kiwi chicks on the mainland thanks to the efforts of conservation groups. Now we might be about to export some, to create an island population of Coromandel Brown Kiwi on pest-free Motutapu in the Hauraki Gulf. On Sunday 12 August interested members from Coromandel Kiwi Community groups visited Motutapu Island to discuss the …
Thanks to all the dog-owners who came to the free Kiwi Avoidance training held in Coromandel in August. We had a great turnout with 16 dogs trained to avoid kiwi in the bush. Dogs are a real danger to kiwi populations on the Coromandel. Any dog can kill kiwi, so please make sure your dogs are tied up at night, …
Waikato Regional Council has granted us a one-off grant of $5000 from their Small Scale Initiative Fund. We were succesful in our application for $3000 towards our Coast to Coast possum control project. This money will be put towards the purchase of cyanide and “prefeed” bait for possum control this summer. We have also been granted $2000 from the same …
A two year study on the impact of Saltwater Paspalum (an invasive weed) has just been completed by two of our members with help from many volunteers. Research was initially undertaken to find out about the health of the Waikawau Bay estuary and what native species lived there. The good news is that the estuary has an amazing abundance of …
This winter our all-female possum team have been hard at work killing possums in 593ha near Waikawau Bay. Three locals; Leo Campbell, Lisa Kearney (both pictured above) and Elizabeth Mitchel have all been employed on the project, which has seen the demise of over 60 possums in the area.