Dear Trappers and Fantail Friends

Back in the saddle again after a long sojourn to Switzerland. No possums over there! And soon no possums in the Rakaia Gorge too! Again, a very low number was caught. Only four for the whole month of November! It is almost a miracle that in the last three months we only got 11 possums whereas in the years before it was always over 50 and one year even a 100! And just last August it was still 21.

The rats are a different story. They just keep coming and for November we had 20 of them plus there were two weasels and one hedgehog. They are few and far between as well. A good thing really. This was all done in nine outings. Only nine?! Well, coming back from Switzerland I did not feel all that good and had to stay indoors!

Basically, I did only Piccadilly Line a few times, once I did the Grand Tour, which is Northern Line, Circle Line and Piccadilly line in one day. Then I went down Waterloo Line and inspected Penny Lane, which had suffered quite a lot from that big storm back in October. Lots of trees came down and obstructed the track. Lucky, I had my little chainsaw with me and opened it all up again, but it is still not finished. The battery did not last that long.

But it is very pleasing to see so much regrowth of all sorts of plants among the broom and gorse. There are lots of broadleaves, cabbage trees, pittosporums and now and then a kowhai. The ferns are back too and one area is all covered in a large leaved ivy. Delightful to see but of course not a native. Unfortunately, there are also sycamore trees sprouting up. They really need to be controlled otherwise the whole area will just become a sycamore forest.

If you are going through there and see a sycamore seedling just pull it out. It is also pleasing to hear a lot of grey warblers in that part of the bush and usually fantails are around. I believe that fauna and flora are doing quite well in the gorge. More needs to be done and to keep it all going as re-invasion lurks just around the corner.  







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All is going well then on the trapping front. A few traps are missing or are damaged. We will replace them or repair them. There are also some new traps going in especially on Penny Lane which has no rat specific traps at all. I allocated about twelve to fifteen DOC150 traps all along the path, say every 40 m a trap.

Another pleasing thing is the Fantail Shop. It really has surpassed all my expectations and while I am sure sometimes things go missing, most of the time the items taken are paid online and often there is an extra donation included. The post box is also a great success like in November we had twelve letters or cards to send off into all directions of the world! It seems it is more popular with tourists than New Zealanders.

And then there is the visitor’s book. Amazing how many entries per day we get. Sometimes the page is not large enough! And the comments are delightful to read. It will be a big project to transcribe it all and maybe produce a statistic of how many visits and from where. Alas, I feel that the Fantail Shop one day will go viral and then we might think we should never have done it! Luckily the long way in is a bit of a deterrent. 

​The shop is now well-stocked with even some Christmas things. My sister back home made us some angels and Christmas cards of which already a few have sold. Then there are the lovely post cards Juliana Child makes. They are a best-seller and then we have the talismans, small tokens with a fantail imprint, made of clay by Christine, also selling like hot buns. Jewellery items are there and painted stones.

This month I also had an interview with the environmental reporter from The Press, the daily newspaper in Christchurch. It was all about the trapping but also he was very interested in the shop. You might see the article soon with a picture of the Fantail Shop! Let me know if you come across it.
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To broaden the interest and appeal of this newsletter, as you might have noticed, I try to include some information of a different kind and slightly different content but  naturally always about trapping and conservation. And today it is the remarkable story of the survival of the Black Robin on the Chatham Islands.

The Black Robin was on the brink of extinction back in the 1980’s when only five birds lived in a small area on Mangere Island. One of them was a female of breeding age and she was called Old Blue. The only hope of the species to survive.

The Department of Conservation under the leadership of Don Merton and his team devised a plan and a management strategy to save the birds. Their efforts and success are now part of the history of conservation and provide a model for other endangered species around the world.

The eggs of little Old Blue were fostered by Chatham Island tomtits which are related to the black robin. They raised the chicks to adulthood. A process over many years until the robins could sustain their own population. It needed tireless nest monitoring around the clock and banding to get the black robins back from extinction.












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A big problem was in-breeding as each of the surviving birds descended from Old Blue. The lack of genetic diversity leads to an increase in diseases and reduced fertility. To overcome this handicap the birds were moved between two groups living on two different islands, Rangatira Island and Mangere Island. Most birds live on Rangatira Island while the ones on Mangere Island are struggling. There is just not enough suitable habitat for them and while there are now over 450 birds alive, they might have reached a limit due to this lack of habitat.

The battle to save these birds is of course not over. They depend first and foremost on a  predator free environment, as an influx of rats or stoats could wipe them out in day or two. It is a powerful reminder of what trapping can do. Not just on the Chatham Islands but across New Zealand. It means that every trap line, every trap out there is important to keep our native bird populations alive and thriving.

Another project that caught my attention is what our friends are doing on Banks Peninsula, Jack and Charlotte. They have made their farm possum free. Thousands of the critters must have lived in the bush on their farm. Their efforts, together with the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust, has led to a recovery of native species not only of birds but also of plants such as tree fuchsia, which is a favourite for possums. 

















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​The fuchsia is also a favourite of native birds, like the nectar feeders bellbird and tui. While tui thrived on Banks Peninsula long ago, they disappeared in the 90’s completely. 70 tuis were re-introduced in 2009 and 2010 and are now thriving all over Akaroa and they are a frequent visitor on Jack’s and Charlotte’s backyard delighting them and all visitors with their magic song. What a bleeding heart story of conservation.

We have no tuis in the Rakaia Gorge. I have never seen one or heard one. But our neighbour says that she saw one in her garden. I am not sure whether there are some at Washpen Falls, but if so they might migrate to the Rakaia Gorge. There is a large colony in a little remnant of forest near Geraldine and tuis are known to fly long distances to find their favourite trees, the kowhais. Of which we have plenty. Maybe we could introduce some tuis?!

As Jack says we can do little bits, and we are doing little bits, and we get a benefit, everybody really gets a benefit, the flora and fauna get  a benefit. The planet earth gets a benefit and again as Jack says: ‘I’m quite positive amidst all the gloom in the world around us’.  So am I in the specific context of the Rakaia Gorge and of the wider one of the planet.

So, thank you yet again for your help and effort to make this positive change. Maybe all trappers are of a positive nature, surely of an optimistic disposition!

Have a fantailistic day! Thanks for reading. And lest we forget: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dear Trappers and Fantail Friends, greeting from Switzerland!

It is sensational. In September we only caught two possums! Last year it was 29! It seems we are on top of the pest. Some will still be lurking around down there but not many. Cameras will be showing what and where. And then we can target those with more traps! It is very exciting and promising. The birds will love it.

Thank you all for doing the work and going out and looking after traps. The weather seems to have been quite bad in September too. But despite that the shop has been doing a roaring trade with lots of souvenirs taken and lots of postcards being posted.

Rats are of course still around too, and we caught twelve of them plus one stoat. That is a good result too. There are some hotspots for rats like around D15 on Piccadilly and D37 on Waterloo. That is very pleasing too.

There are mice as well. There is a phenomenon called mesopredator release which means that when one species like rats is eliminated another one like mice takes over and the population just explodes and causes real damage to ecosystems, like  stripping of seeds, predation of insects and skinks or geckos and ground nesting birds.

This month was also the New Zealand Bird of the Year competition which was won by the falcon or Karearea. There were 73 birds contesting the competition and the New Zealand Falcon won with 21% of the votes out of 75000 participants.

The falcons hunt at great speeds reaching up to 200 km an hour when diving for their prey. There are only about 5000 to 8000 of them left putting them at risk of extinction. Incidentally Sue and Jon on one of their trapping rounda saw a pair of them in the Rakaia Gorge. Hopefully they will be nesting somewhere in the cliffs above the river.  They are magnificent birds as the two pictures below show. 

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There are 38 species of falcons worldwide and the New Zealand falcon is the only one endemic to this country. It is found both in the North and South Islands even down to Auckland Island. There are three forms of which the bush falcon lives in the forest mainly in the North Island, an Eastern variety in the central South Island and a Southern one in Fiordland and Auckland Island.

They usually lay three to four eggs which take up to 33 days to hatch. The falcons do not build nests but lay their eggs in scrapes on the ground or under rock outcrops and sometimes in an emerging forest on an epiphyte.

That makes them very vulnerable to predators. Especially cats are a problem as even the falcon finds it difficult to defend the chicks against such a large predator. But rats, stoats and even hedgehogs are known to have attacked their nests. Another problem seems to be windfarms, shooting by people despite their protected status and electrocution on power poles.
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There are positive things too in this battle for a better world. There are areas where real success has been achieved in eliminated predators like the Miramar Peninsula in Wellington, Zealandia of course and other sanctuaries. That is great motivation to continue the fantail project and turn the Rakaia Gorge into one of those sanctuaries. So, thank you again for your support and trapping efforts.