Ark in the Park

Christmas message to the Volunteers

Dear Volunteers,

 Thank you to all volunteers for your efforts in 2011

Some Highlights:-

Rat Baiting

Thanks to all the Line Owners in P,AN,B, K,U, IW, F and R Blocks

We have seen the Ark expanded to 2000+ Hectares which was successfully baited in total from August to October and we are now well into our second cycle of  baiting thanks to the 25 or so people who turn up to our weekend and Laurence Bechet's mid week sessions.

John Sumich organised a highly successful baiting of the Cutty Grass Block from the ASC Hut

Trapping

Earlier in the year many volunteers managed the huge task of changing about 100 Fenn traps to DoC200s and overseas students continue on with this work

At present a dedicated team of over 60 trappers ably lead by Stuart Rogers counter the mustelid threat and these people will be especially active over Xmas and the first 3 months of the New Year which is the height of the stoat irruption

David Lloyd continues to help with carpentry needs for traps

Sausage team (who provide a much loved end to each session)

Many thanks to Dee Lloyd, Helen and Patrick Doherty, Rhiannon Herrick and Tony Morrison and to Tom White who has replaced Adnan Demir on the team

Canopy Team

There is an exciting new development in the Ark to explore a whole new environment "off the ground" -What is the predator presence up in the tops and how do they impact on our breeding species?

Let Ami Maxwell know if this is something you wish to help with... amimaxwell@gmail.com

Birds

A whitehead translocation was carried out in March and our first whitehead survey completed in Sept lead by John Staniland who continues also to do a yearly bird count inside and outside the Ark

Kokako -the huge task of nest finding and following these birds is being managed by Andy Warneford and Jenny Waite

Robins- They are breeding well and spreading throughout the Ark with dedicated people namely Heidrun Schinke, Keryn McCraken and Grant Capill monitoring them

Our first Lizard survey was done with another scheduled for March 2012

Planting and Weeding

Rosemary Stagg and Yvonne Shadbolt look after the golf course carpark and surrounds.

Big ginger and woolly nightshade eradications were carried out on the Whatitiri, Falls Rd/Te Henga Rd around Karanga camp with Andy Warneford prominent

Track Clearing

Bruce Calvert is a huge help in clearing AW Block and navigating new areas of the Ark plus deploying traps in the field

Our overseas students have been very helpful clearing tracks

The Ark Concert

Karen Staniland assisted by husband John, Maj de Poorter, Rosemary Stagg and many volunteers organised another successful concert at the Glen Eden Playhouse

The New Storage Area

Thanks to Scott De Silva, Riki Bennet and Mark Bellingham the open shed is now enclosed.  Ark in the Park has had a partition wall built down the middle and we now have a new lined storage area complete with lockable cupboard and shelving and workbench.  Just need a small working bee to stack stoat traps, paint outside, transfer all goods from green shed and get it all in order.  If you have any free time on the Wednesday 4th of January and would like to assist with this please contact Jane on nature.project@forestandbird.org.nz

Stage two is a new office space for Laurence and Andy.  Fingers crossed.

Dates for January

Saturday 7th of January – First volunteer weekend session.

Saturday and Sunday 14th/15th January – Rat Monitoring Weekend.

Saturday 21st of January – Stoat Session

Sunday 29th of January – Ark Volunteer’s New Years Celebration

Farewell Overseas Volunteers

We farewell our German visitors, Anne Schmitt and Stephanie Wandelmaier who leave after Christmas and also Ella Dumas our French student who has been working with the Ark since mid November and leaves us early January.  We thank you for coming and for all your hard work and we wish you all the best for the future.

Thank You Karen!

We send a huge thank you to Karen for her ongoing guidance and support.  We couldn’t do it without you Karen.

We wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Kind regards,

Laurence and Jane

Volunteer Coordinators

Kokako Celebration

To mark the start of the next breeding season for kokako, Ark in the Park held a  public celebration on Saturday 10 September at the Arataki Visitor Centre on Scenic Drive in the Waitakere Ranges, with activities for the whole family, guided walks, face painting, an art competition, and talks about kokako and the efforts to  save them from extinction. Twenty two Kokako have been released in the Waitakere Ranges by Ark in the Park so far, and they have settled in well. Last season three nests and chicks were produced, the first since 80 years in the Waitakere Ranges. 

The nice weather on Saturday contributed to a good time for all. Participants included the leader of the Kokako Recovery Group Oliver Overdijk, explaining about the New Zealand wide efforts to restore kokako to their former glory and how the Ark in the Park kokako reintroduction is part of that. Mayor Len Brown expressed his support for the project and then talked to young people about what kokako mean to them. Councillor Sandra Coney, Watercare Services’ Shayne Cunis and Forest & Bird’s Mike Britton talked about their organisations’ role in the successful reintroduction.  Eru Thompson and Wayne Knox from Te Kawerau a Maki provided insight into kokako’s value as taonga and Phil Crown from Ngati Rereahu talked about the early days when kokako habitat was lost to logging in Pureora (Central North Island), and how conservation and pest control have turned around the tide so that kokako are now recovering and birds from that area can now be translocated to places such as Ark in the Park.

Many wonderful artworks were displayed from schools as well as adults.  Massey’s  Colwill School did exceptionally well with several students winning prizes.

Right now in the Ark...

Rodent baiting:

The Spring baiting is now completed, and there is a lull between 'pulses'. The next baiting will be the Summer partial baiting, restricted to the periphery because of the wasp hazard.

Kokako Monitoring:

The telemetry tracking of this season's new arrivals has been replaced by the activities of the teams seeking nests. This is an extremely challenging task, because of what Andy Warneford describes as 'incredibly stealthy' birds but one nest and fledgling has been found (see photograph on the right, taken by Grant Capill). Equally importantly, the presence of a thriving population has been confirmed by observation, including at least one unbanded bird born last year. The following account from Andy gives an insight into the difficulties and pleasures of the kokako team's efforts:

"Wow, what a difference a couple of days of nice weather makes.

We found a fresh kokako fledgling this morning. What first clued us onto it was the fascinating beep beep and high pitched whirring noises that sounded kokako-ish, but obviously not the sort of things we normally hear from our adult birds.

We arrived on site in the southern areas at 6am, and birds could be heard just off track immediately. After then chasing them further south for an hour or so, they spun around and headed back in the opposite direction. For much of the time, we could hear 6-8 kokako in around a 200m or so radius of our location.

For the last two days, in between yelling profanities at kiekie and supple jack, we were hearing some very unusual almost squawking noises, which we eventually established was adult kokako, but not one we've heard before...

This is where the story gets 'really' interesting for me... We had sighted a Yellow band, over something else but definitely a light colour multiple times. That makes it either Brittany (karanga camp offspring of Moby Punga, from 10k/m north, unlikely) or kiekie, or dylan. Neither of these two latter birds have been seen since release, and even disappeared off the receiver trail early in the kokako re-introduction.

We've had suspicions of a 'mystery pair' in this area for a while, but with very poor weather, high winds, heavy rain, and intense under growth, we haven't made much progress.

But, after 3hours of chasing (and swearing) today we got to see the fledgling being fed, and calling after the yet to be confirmed parent bird (either kiekie or dylan) as it flew off to get another feast for the youngster.

 The density of the kokako population in this area, is staggering. The variety of calls, and the closeness of them actually made it quite hard to focus on the ones we’re after today.

 Thanks everyone, the Ark kokako from what I can see are doing unbelievably well."

Robin Monitoring:

Every year since the first release of 53 robins in 2005 Ark volunteers (with overseas students a key element) have sought out nest sites and monitored the breeding success of the pairs - typically three clutches of 2-3 chicks per season. In the 2010 breeding season we located the nests of 11 pairs (and of course there will be a lot more we didn't discover), and new nesting territories, thanks to the efforts of volunteers who have spread out and found where the birds have settled. Anyone who is interested in helping should contact our Volunteer Coordinator. Volunteers need to have time available Monday to Friday, and to be fit enough to move off-track through our steep and slippery bush.

These birds are some of the most charming to be found in the New Zealand bush, with their quiet inquisitive nature making them easy to study and enjoy. Above is a picture taken recently by one of our star robin-finders, Grant Capill, who is shown to the right, hard at work or, just possibly, asleep.

Heidrun and Keryn have been doing a magnificent job on the Auckland City walk finding and protecting robin nests from stoats with John Stewart helping to band fledglings. On one day Heidrun saw 15 birds and one chick!

Rodent Monitoring:

On the weekend 15-16th January, volunteers laid detection papers in 170 tunnels in the Ark, and in 30 outside. Outside the Ark the rate of tunnel visits was 60% rats and no mice, while inside the Ark it was 3% rats and 3% mice.

These results are 2-3 months after the two Spring baiting cycles.

Check out the graphs showing monitoring results [click here]

Meanwhile, the Stoaters continue to tramp around their circuits, and 98 mustelids have been caught in the year ending 30 June 2011 (check out the maps showing their results).  

Then there's the teams attacking weeds, navigators extending lines to fill in gaps..