Other cool stuff from Hauturu that I just had to share!

The one thing that I was really worried about before I went to Little Barrier was getting off the boat.
You may ask why?

Well there is NO wharf, jetty or means for a graceful descent. I had been told horror stories of swimming ashore and turning back for the mainland if the weather was too rough.

I like to consider myself pretty tough but the thought of jumping off a boat in rough sea and swimming ashore holding my dry bags just created more grey hairs!

Luckily enough we were able to land in calm conditions (which was really surprising considering the rough trip we had endured on the way over)

I think the best way to explain how you get onshore is to do it with photos-

This is the Norma Jean, this is the charter boat we travelled on. Can you see the small platform at the back of the boat? This gets put down flat when the anchor is dropped, we then hop from the big boat onto a smaller boat.

This was another charter boat that came over to the island while we were there. In this picture you can see the small boat just leaving the larger boat.

The small boat lines up with the gangway and heads towards the carridge.

And off you climb at the top.
It was lovely to be waiting at the top of the gangway when Melissa, Jenny, Mike and Murray arrived on the island.

I've talked a lot about the bird's acommadation and food in earlier posts so thought I should show you a few photos of the human's :)

One of the 2 bunkrooms.

The dining room table ... most nights there were at least 16 and one night we had 21!

The back porch area

The kitchen. Was set up with all the basic stuff you could want. Graham (pictured) was always willing to help me out in the kitchen! Especially cooking our daily dose of very freshly caught SNAPPER!!!

Another view of the back porch. It wasn't unusual to have Kereru and Robin hoping about on this grass
and decking while I was there.

An example of dinner.... curries and fresh snapper this particular night.

The bunkhouse from the front lawn.

This photo was taken from exactly the same spot as the last photo but looking out towards the main land.

One of the very special moments on the island for me was the day that the birds were blessed by local iwi, Ngati Manuhiri. Sheree, Rangi and Moihra travelled to the island on Thursday.
It was a lovely experience to have them with us. Nga manu (maori for birds) are Tane's creatures and are hugely significant in Maori culture.
In maori culture each bird has special significane and a role in the world. I have mentioned in an earlier post a little about our two birds.
If you would like to know more Maori stories about the popokatea or tieke click on the links below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehead_(bird)
http://www.kcc.org.nz/saddlebacktieke

Having local iwi involved in translocations is vitally important. It shows respect for their tangata whenua status and our understanding of how important maori customs are.
A very special part of this story is how Sheree and Rangi travelled to Taranaki on the Friday and were hosted by Ngati Tupaia (Lake Rotokare's local iwi.) The two iwi both said karakia and joined in with the release of the birds.
This is a very special part of the journey, the handing over of guardianship from one people to another.

Simon taking a few moments to share the significance of what this translocation
 means to the Rotokare Community and the people of Taranaki, in the foreground of the photo are Rangi and Sherree from Ngati Tupaia.

Ngati Tupaia Kaumatua perform a blessing for the birds. This was not only for the birds heading to Rotokare, but also the birds heading to Rotoroa Island. As not all the birds had been caught at this stage, Rangi and Sheree returned to the island a few days later to perform the karakia again.

So that brings my blogs about Hauturu to an end. I know I have said it many times already but I just cannot express how priviledged I feel to have been part of this journey. It really has been a life changing experience. I have grown to love our native birds, I want learn more and help with educating people about them. I want to continue helping at Lake Rotokare to keep the beautiful sanctuary healthy so we can bring more speices back to Taranaki. The people that I was lucky enough to work with were amazing. Their passion for conservation and the birds is infectious. I hope that I can keep in contact with the team in the future so I can continue to learn from them and hopefully get them involved in my teaching so that my students can learn from them as well.
I have said it before and I will say it again- He aha te mea nui? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata (what is the most important thing? it is people, it is people, it is people.

I have found myself gazing into the skies alot over the last few weeks in search of our new Rotokare residents. Yesterday as I was walking to my car I saw a small flock of popokatea flying about down on the grass area in front of the office. I was sooooo incredibly excited to see this. Many other sightings have happened in the last couple of weeks for both species of birds which is awesome.
It tells us that they have settled into their new home.

One of the biggest science skills I have learnt more about through this translocation is about observation. I have learnt to take the time to listen and to look- with my eyes open and my ears switched on. I had never taken the time to notice so many things about the native birds that call Rotokare home.
Since returning to Rotokare I have found myself taking the time to stop and look and listen. I can identify so many different birds now just by their calls and can usually spot the bird as well!!

One thing is for sure, walks around the sanctuary are going to take a whole lot longer in the future!!!


Now the focus turns to next week .... the translocation of 40 tieke from Bushy Park and the big event on Saturday the 31st when the birds are officially welcomed into their new home.

I CAN'T WAIT!!!  

Watch this space!

 

 

 

 

Acommadation and food .... for the birds!

 

When the birds are captured they then need to be well looked after until it is time to move them to their new home.
Some of our birds were caught 3 days prior to leaving.

The birds were housed in temporary aviaries. The photos below show the process of putting them together and fitting them out so that the birds felt at home.  Towards the end of the week another aviary was used as well. This aviary was a permanent one that was located in the bust behind the ranger's house.



One team starts building the framing

 

Another team starts collecting for the interior of the aviaries

 



Aviary construction well underway



Carefully lining the insides

 

Almost done


 



All complete. Notice the two doors? Only one door is allowed to be open at once. This reduces the chance of birds being able to escape.

 

 

Notice the tarpoulins over the tops of the aviary? Any ideas of why they might be there?

During the last translocation, a few birds were killed by a bird that was divebombing the aviary from the outside and knocked the birds out. I can't remember what type of bird it was off the top of my head, but will contact someone who will know the answer and then adjust this blog. I forgot to get photos of the other adaptions that were made to the tree that are behind the aviaries. Any branches that looked like appealing perches were wrapped in plastic to deter the bird from sitting and watching.

So now that the birds have a great place to stay, they now need some food .....

That was Sharon's department. What an awesome lady! Full of knowledge and fun. I spent a lot of time during the week helping Sharon out and getting to know lots about the sustenance the birds need while they are in capticity.

 

Much planning and preparation has to go into the menu. Add to this the logistics of putting everything through quarantine! What a huge job.

If I thought it was a big job feeding the humans, I was always bought back to earth when I saw the amount of hours Sharon did every day getting the food organised for the birds.

 

The following are some of the food related photos I took over the week. I hope the captions will explain the photo.



The first two photos show Sharon's 'office' Everything had a place, and was super organised ALL the time :) You can see the fruit under the benches, the ingrediants for some of the different foods that were prepared, the water dishes and supplements. Am pretty chuffed that when I look around the room I know what everything is used for :)

 



Seperating mealworms from the bran they live in to work out how many mealworms we had. Having spent the last few months working with mealworms I really enjoyed this part of the exercise!





Each avairy got this amount of fruit twice a day. I had to learn the correct way to cut each type of fruit as you wanted to maximise the amount of flesh area that is available to the birds. Very different to the way we eat a piece of fruit.





Sharon preparing the tins for the birds. Each aviary got two of these cafeterias twice a day. Birds are like humans, they like different things. Some birds may eat particular foods and not others. The foods on offer replicate as much of what the birds would eat in the wild. Nectar, fruits, berries, invertabrates etc. As well as all this they also get a mineral/ vitamin suppliment and good old water.
 



Almost ready to carry the tins down to the aviaries. This was when I felt like I was really helping Sharon out!
 5 Aviaries = 10 boards of tins and 5 buckets of fruit. Plus the water and trays.... and spares in case of accidents....
A HUGE JOB twice a day!



 

 

The well picked over fruit after half a day in an aviary!

This was the food that was provided to the birds while in transit. Oranges and meal worms. They were fed before they left Hauturu and again once they arrived at Rotokare. They were then fed again a range of food before the release at 10 the following morning.

You can probably start to get an appreciation of the enormity of the translocation process.

It's not just about catching birds and moving them!  I certainly learnt far more than I ever imagined. I knew I didn't know much before we went but I feel I have only skimmed the surface of what there is to know!

Can't wait to learn some more :)

How to catch birds .... not with butterfly nets!

 

I was showing a person my photos from the Hauturu trip last week and she was fascinated with the photos of the nets we used to catch the birds. I asked her how she thought they were caught and she answered "with something like butterfly nets" after an initial burst of laughter I did reflect that only a few months ago I probably thought the same thing!

This post is dedicated to the catching and processing part of the translocation.

The nets that are used are called 'mist nets' I guess they are called that because of their transperancy. If they are errected correctly and are in the correct lighting then the net becomes almost invisible.

The nets can range in length, the shorter ones we used were 6 metres and the longest 12 metres.
The nets are about 2.5-3 metres wide/tall. They are broken into 4 sections. Each section has a piece that drops below the section underneath it to create what looks like a pocket. Basically the bird flies into the net and falls down into the pocket and is trapped.






This is a diagram showing how the pockets of the nets work.

Chauncy and Kay carefully setting a net out

The net is tied between 2 poles, if you look carefully you can see the far pole.

The nets are spread out to almost the top and bottom of the poles.

 

When a bird is caught in the net, it is carefully removed.

 

If the bird is the type required then it is bagged (more info coming up) or if it is the wrong sort of bird it is released. We caught everything from fantails to kakariki to Kereru .... the last left a huge hole in the net :(

So you may be asking how it is that we get the right species that we are after? Well I was wondering this as well! I was really surprised by the simplicity of the answer. An MP3 player!!

Yip, on the MP3 players they have a range of bird calls. We of course were after tieke (saddleback) and popokotea (whitehead) so the calls we were using were of these types of birds.

There were two speakers that attached to the MP3 player. One speaker was placed on eash side of the net. The player would play the calls and the birds would fly down to see what we going on.

When we could see a bird showing interest on one side of the net we would change the speaker to the other side of the net to what the bird was on. The bird would then think that the mysterious bird had moved away and they would follow .... and fly straight into the net.

 



This is the MP3 player that is used. Notice the box in Chauncy's left hand? That's the switcher box (my highly technical knowledge coming in to play here.) When the bird is on one side of the net, the switch is turned to the opposite side to change the speaker that the birdcall is coming from.



 After the wanted bird is untangled from the net and carefully placed into a black bag, it is carefully carried to the processing station.  



Kevin would be waiting for the birds. He would give them the once over for general health and take a swab and blood sample. On some translocations that blood test results would determine if the birds could be taken but in our case the results would only be used for research.



Then the bird gets handed on to John. His job is to determine the sex of the birds and band them. It was super important to have the right number of male and female birds. Banding the birds means that they are identifiable to anyone that needs to identify them. To me, the banding means that when we see Tieke with no bands in our sanctuary.... the birds have been breeding!!!! YAY  



Washing day on a translocation.... 100 odd bird bags to be washed and dried.... not sure how I ended up doing it!  

 

The video link below was filmed while I was on Little Barrier. The people that talk on it are the same people I worked with. When you click on the link, a little link should appear up the top of the screen for you to click onto.

 



Little Barrier birds take flight

I hope this has answered some of your questions about how we caught the birds. It was really interesting working with different people in the catch team. Although they are using the same equipment, the way they work is slightly different. They all think their own way is best which was quite funny! It was great to work with them all and learn their different styles.
This is something that is really important for students to learn- there are many ways to do the same thing that will give the same results. No one has to claim that the way they do it is the only way.

Next blog is on food and avaries :)

Te Hauturu-o-Toi / Little Barrier Island. Part One of the Tieke Transloaction

The translocation of Tieke is taking place in 2 parts. The first is from Hauturu and the second is from Bushy Park (a sanctuary near Wanganui.)

Why do we need to do it in 2 stages you may ask? The answer is simple, genetics.

Because we want a healthy population that will breed, we need to get the genetics as diverse as we can. With the birds all stemming from one population only 50 years ago, the genetics aren't hugely different but even a small margin of difference will improve the health of the population.

Hauturu-o-Toi / Little Barrier Island is a 3083 hectare sanctuary that is looked after by the Department of Conservation. It was New Zealand's first nature reserve, being given this status in 1895. It is home to around 400 different speicies of plants/ trees, some that are now not seen on the mainland. It is home to 40 species of birds permanently (or seasonally present,) two bat species and 14 species of reptiles. It is the most diverse range of native fauna in New Zealand.
(information sourced from DOC website)

If you are interested in learning more about Hauturu please follow this link-
 http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/auckland/hauraki-gulf-islands/little-barrier-island-nature-reserve-hauturu-o-toi/features/

 

Te-Hauturu-o-Toi. Little Barrier Island.  

The Hauturu translocation was a collaborative project between Rotokare and the Auckland Zoo (who were translocating the same birds for their Rotoroa Island Project)
The translocation was being managed by Kevin Parker (Parker Conservation.) Have a look at his website if you want to know why Kevin was the best person for the job.  http://www.parkerconservation.co.nz/


I was lucky enough to be part of the team from Rotokare that went to Hauturu to help catch the birds.
I cannot express in words (or any other way) how priviledged I felt to be given this opportunity to go. Hauturu is a conservationist's mecca. It's a place you hear about, read about and dream about visiting but very few people ever get to visit.
Entry onto the island is by permit only and you have to have a really valid reason for going over.


There were 14 people in the team, with 6 people swapping half way through. Rotokare provided the cook for the first week (me) and 2 catch team members, and Auckland Zoo provided the cook for the second week and 2 catch team members. The rest of the team were made up of Kevin's colleagues. These were incredibly experienced, knowledgable people with many, many, many translocations between them. The thing that impressed me the most was how willing they all were to share their knowledge and experience with those of us who had little of either when it comes to birds.
Add to the team the DOC staff who live on the island and we had a fantastic bunch of people to work alongside.

Everyone had a vital part to play in the translocation. Read on to find out more!



The Rotokare Team (Simon had already returned to Taranaki when this was taken) From left, Jenny, Chauncy, Murray, Mike, Me, Melissa. On day 6 it was time for Chauncy and I to head home. There was a few hours between boat trips for all of us to spend some time together. It was lovely to see some of our Rotokare family!!



Rotokare Team One- Chauncy, Simon and Me.

Once again the logistics of a trip away were a little stressful but I am hugely thankful to my mum (Zelda) for looking after Emma and good friends Ange & Glenn Thompson for looking after Ryan.
The kids were super excited about me going away (which was really nice) as we have been talking about the birds for a long time.
When I told Ryan that I was going on the trip, he cried. He cried because he really wanted to come as well! I think that says loudly how my passion for Rotokare is rubbing off on my kids.
It was nice to go away knowing that my children were supportive of what I was doing.


Preparing to go to the island was in itself a big adventure! We received lists of what to bring and not to bring and information on what needs to be sterilized etc. We were told to pack things into dry bags and be prepared to swim ashore if the weather was not suitable for a normal landing ... I began to get rather worried about what I was getting myself in for!

Then the menu planning started .... the shopping list grew and grew and grew! One of the most interesting parts of the food planning was having to do an online order for all the non perishable food 2 weeks before we left. This was so it could be delivered to DOC in Devonport, put through quarantine and then sail to the island on a ferry that was going out 5 days before us.
I was super nervous in the days leading up to going as I was really worried that I hadn't planned well enough and that I would have forgotten something!
When we arrived in Warkworth we went off to the supermarket to purchase all the perishables (and beer) Armed with shopping lists and trolleys and a RV point of the beer fridge we set off.
I'm not sure what the checkout operator thought when we arrived at his checkout with 5 trolleys overflowing with food!

At this point we were still enjoying the shopping

5 trolleys later, we were totally over shopping and ready for dinner.

 

I think quarantine comes next .....

 

As I have already mentioned, not just anyone can go to Hauturu. Entry is by permit only. Before you can travel to the island you have to go through quarantine. This was done at the Warkworth DOC office. Everything is checked over thoroughly by trained staff. With the volume of gear that was being taken it took from 7:00 in the morning until almost lunchtime to get everything checked. While we waited it was a good chance to get to know the others.

 

Even the beer had to be unloaded and checked.

Socks getting thoroughly checked over. It's amazing how easy it is for seeds to get trapped into your socks without you knowing.

Chauncy getting his gear checked over...

Simon having his turn with DOC staff.

Once quarantine was finished we headed off to the island. I'm not much of a sailor and I didn't enjoy the trip at all! However, it was a small consulation when others (who have made the trip regularly) said that it was one of the worst trips they have had as well.

Once we got to the island and off loaded, we had to go through the quarantine process all over again.

 

 

Getting gear ready for another round of quarantine. Everyone was allowed to help with this check which made the process a lot faster.

The Hauturu quarantine hut



I think there were 4 trailor loads worth of gear that were taken off the boat. This included all the food, personal gear and the equipment we needed to catch the birds.

So, there we are. We are on the island. Next post will be about everything to do with the birds.

Thanks for reading.