Restoring the Dawn Chorus
The Dawn Chorus Project is now in its 8th year with a small but dedicated team of volunteers working trap lines within the Catchpool and surrounding areas. Over this period an estimated 5,000 opossums have been removed from the area, but with constant re-invasion taking place the need to trap is ongoing.
The challenge faced by the Trust is in attracting volunteers willing and able to monitor and maintain trap lines with leg hold traps, checking the traps daily to ensure minimal distress to the animal. The Trust is currently trialling Master and Warrior possum humane kill traps to enable more comprehensive trapping of the Catchpool Valley and environs and to help increase the number of volunteers able to participate.
Opossums consume large quantities of vegetation which would otherwise sustain native birdlife. They have also been known to raid nests for eggs. In addition, rats, feral cats and stoats are also targeted to ensure the successful breeding of some of our smaller birds.
The Trust is committed to providing active predator control to ensure the successful nesting and subsequent increase in the variety of birds in the park. Some birds which have returned or increased in numbers over recent years include, bellbirds (Korimako), tui (parson bird), paradise ducks, long tail and shining cuckoos (pipiwharauroa), grey warblers (riroriro), rifleman, kingfishers, pukeko, fantails (piwakawaka), Australasian harriers, silvereye (tauhou), tomtits (piropiro), kakariki, pipits (pihoihoi), bush falcon (karearea), whiteheads (popokatea), morepork (ruru), welcome swallows, and wood pigeon (kereru).
For our latest stoat and rat trapping statistics, see this Adobe Acrobat PDF document entitled "Report on Stoat Trapping - Sept07" (1.54mb)
Return of the Ruru...
Our volunteer members are buzzing with stories about "magical encounters" with Ruru and other native birds just lately. It is truly wonderful to see how the trapping efforts of our volunteers - and the broader pest control measures implemented by DoC and the Greater Wellington Regional Council - are all beginning to pay off in such a delightful way!
