Kia ora everyone. Here's a short and sweet update from us here at Glenfern before everyone heads off on holiday.
These past 4 months have been a brilliant way to ground ourselves, connect with the whenua and appreciate our surroundings. We are however very excited to welcome back guests and day trippers to the sanctuary, and finally share this piece of paradise we have had all to ourselves over lockdown.
Our friend Chicken the kaka has heard the humans are returning so is off gallivanting about like a teenager with all her other bird friends. She now only checks in once every week or so for a cheeky snack.
Things are just more fun in kaka land.
This time of year is all about giving, so we have re-baited all 1600 of our traps this month with only the finest Pics peanut butter and RJ's Liquorice just for you. Merry Christmas rattys.
4 times a year we place 60 ink cards in tunnels along index lines within the sanctuary and 20 cards outside the predator fence where there is no pest control. According to our recent results, either the rats are all still at home social distancing OR our trapping efforts are paying off. There has been no poison used on the peninsula for over 3 years now. Our results told us we had a 3.3% rat population density within the sanctuary compared to a whopping 55% outside.
The map shows the location of the index lines and each red dot represents an ink card that had rat prints on it.
The Aotea bird count took place on the 3rd of December. We were very happy to have Kakariki feature in Glenferns count this year. There is a small population of these red crowned parakeets over the hill from us in Okiwi, so it has been great to see more and more of them flying over to check out the sanctuary.
Both Sarah and her dog Tui were super excited to get back out in the field. Thanks for coming and doing a cat scat audit before the busy season kicks off. We can now better position our cat traps coming into petrel breeding season.
Tony Bouzaid, the founder of Glenfern Sanctuary, laboured at the restoration and protection of the Kotuku Peninsula for over 20 years. It has now been 10 years since his passing.
“The hardest part of any project is to begin. We have begun- we are underway- we have a passion. We want to make a difference.” - Sir Peter Blake
It’s been a hard year for everyone and we would just like to say thank you so much to all our supporters. It’s gearing up to be a big summer. We hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. See you in our neck of the bush sometime soon.
Meri Kirihimete Glenfern team