Māia’s 2 Million – Episode Nine & Ten
Celine the Trust Manager dropped the ball on the post last month so here is the May story…
As the wet and cold has started setting in, it’s time to bring out the winter boots and wet weather gears! At the beginning of May, the TKT trapping team had the privilege of staying a couple of nights at the Totara block hut where 10 Kiwi were recently released into, we were lucky enough to hear some calling on our second night’s stay.
We have been busy deploying sound recorders around the region to listen for kiwi presence, however with all the rain pouring down lately, I’ll have to wait until it clears up so we can hear them calling!
I spent a couple of days helping at Rotokare Scenic Reserve, bringing in tracking cards to see what little critters are hanging around, (luckily just insects and a gecko was found!!) I was also excited to attend a Pateke release at the reserve, 70 of them were let free on the lake to establish a new home in Taranaki.
At the end of the month, I was fortunate enough to help with tracking Kiwi in Omoana, the little guy we found (Waitiri) had a great hiding spot, keeping super dry from the rain 😊
I certainly didn’t skip on steps this month, I managed to squeeze in a total of 246,888 steps, bringing my total up to 1,476,893 !
And the June story
Manawatia a Matariki!
I had my first day up on Taranaki Maunga tracking kiwi with telemetry gear on my own, the rivers were flowing and the sun was shining, it really was living the conservation dream!
Mid June, I ventured down to our southern sites near Waverley to check how our new traplines are doing, on my 3rd trap in, I got my finger caught in a DOC250 when I was resetting it, and unfortunately it ended up being broken after an x-ray…now I have a little finger splint for 6 weeks! That was an unfriendly reminder that those traps are something to be reckoned with and it really takes a lot of power to deal to a ferret! ☹
I am nearing the end of my Level 3 pest operations course through WITT, we had three awesome days of Quad and LUV training at WITT and a farm at Egmont Village, with all the other apprentices and students in the region. I had a bit of learning with reversing trailers, which proved to be a little bit of a challenge, however, practice makes perfect!
We have started the Kiwi monitoring/listening in Rotokare and Omoana, this involves spending two hours sitting in the bush in the dark and the nights have been bitterly cold, it’s all worth it when you hear the kiwi calling!
My steps went up another 167k this month putting me up to 1,644,356 steps! I have 3 months and 355,644 steps to go!!
