Tui well established in Mangaiti Gully

Parent feeding a young Tui. Mangaiti Gully.
 Photo by Owen Cole

We have spent a lot of time down in the gully over the last eight years. Over this time we get a very good feeling on what the fauna is up to. There has always been some winter sighting of Tui but gradually an odd one was seen during the spring / summer months. Then, in the spring of 2017, a sighting of a juvenile Tui up the Gordonton Road end was reported and one was thought to have been seen around our depot off Coleraine Drive.

The winter of 2018 saw a spike in Tui numbers. In August twelve were seen gathering among the bare branches of a black locust tree late one afternoon.  A couple of weeks later at least 18 (it was hard to count exactly) were seen feeding in the Taiwanese cherry trees in Sovereign Isles. As spring approached and Tui paired up and created territories, many remained in the gully. Sightings were now common.

In December 2018 juvenile Tui was either seen and / or heard in three locations: in the gully just off Wairere Drive; at the stream junction where the stream leads up to Gordonton Road and up the Sexton Road end. For every one seen, we are confident that there are many others. Tui are well and truly established as a thriving part of the Mangaiti Gully fauna.

We believe this is the result of the Halo programme that was responsible for getting Tui back into Hamilton.  Then in Mangaiti Gully this was followed by a rat eradication programme and possum control which has enabled the Tui that came to successfully breed.

This has taken a number of years to get to where we are now and has  involved the help and support of a lot of volunteers, for which the Mangaiti Gully Restoration Trust are truly grateful.  This has enabled our trust to work successfully towards achieving our vision which is, “to restore the native flora of Mangaiti gully back to, as near as is practical, pre European status and to manage the gully in such a way that native fauna (birds, fish, bats, reptiles & insects) will re-establish, either naturally or by introduction and for this to be sustainable.”

Introducing tracking tunnels to monitor rat activity in Mangaiti Gully

Tracking tunnel locations in part of Mangaiti Gully.  

Objective

Is to develop a snap shot of the rat activity in the autumn (high activity period) and spring (low activity period) each year over a number of years to assist us to manage our rat eradication programme more effectively. It will also be used as a base line if, at some point in the future, we make changes to our present eradication programme.

Method

Tracking tunnels are a standard method of monitoring recognised by institutions involved in environmental practices in New Zealand.  The target is to have the tunnels at 50 metre intervals along the gully floor for the entire 30 hectares of Mangaiti Gully. The tunnels remain in place. At the time of monitoring, peanut butter is smeared on the wall half way along inside the tunnel. A white card with a black ink pad in the centre is inserted. This is left over night and removed the next day.  If a rat, or any other animal (mice or hedgehog) or insect (weta) enters the tunnel and walks over the ink pad then their foot prints are left on the white card. Each tunnel is coded and GPS plotted on a map.

White faced heron nesting

Chick perching by the trunk in Mangaiti Gully.
Best picture available taken with an I-phone. 

In the pine trees at the back of Sexton Road (the northern end of Mangaiti Gully) a pair of White Faced Herons had a nest this summer raising two chicks to fledge. The young were seen on the 5th of February fumbling around up in the canopy flapping from branch to branch as they tested their wings all the while demanding a feed from their parents.

While many people probably think that the white-faced heron is indigenous to New Zealand, it is actually found throughout most of Australasia. It is a recent arrival being self-introduced (which classifies it as native) to New Zealand in the late 1940s.

Breeding generally takes place in the spring in New Zealand. Both sexes share the task of building the nest, incubating the eggs and caring for the young. The nest is an untidy shallow bowl, made of sticks and usually placed on a leafy branch 5–12 m high. A typical clutch has three to five pale blue eggs. Normally only one brood is raised per year. Incubation lasts approximately 25 days. The parents guard the chicks for 3–4 weeks and fledging takes place 40 days after hatching. Typical nestling predators in New Zealand include Australian magpies and harrier hawks. (Wikipedia)

Building a Morepork / Ruru – nesting box

Morepork nest box and owl on tree fern in Mangaiti Gully.
Photo by Jeanette Holborow

If you live on a gully, or have a bush area close by, you might like to think about installing a Morepork / Ruru nest box. Check out this link for a design:  http://wingspan.co.nz/PDF/how-to-build-morepork_nest_boxes.pdf . Getting it up a tree might be a bit of a mission for many of us so you may need to get help for this. You could always get an arborist to install it but, unless you have one as a friend, it would have a cost attached to it.

Rats and possums could be a problem so it would be advisable to have tin sheeting around the tree trunk above (if the branches above touch other trees) and below the nest box.