The track across the new planting has had matting and pit sand spread along it. The matting is to stop the track disappearing into the mud during the winter. It was inspected after heavy overnight rain and all the drains and culverts were directing water in the right direction. The matting was donated by Apparelmaster Waikato.
We have purchased three DOC 250 traps (Rats, Hedgehogs and Mustelids) and two cage possum traps. These were funded by the Waikato Regional Council’s Small Scale Initiative Fund. While we will be using the possum traps ourselves they will also be available to anyone that is having possum trouble in their back yard and it does not necessarily need to be our gully. The overall policy is to get rid of as many possums as possible.
There have been sights of Kingfisher burrowing into an old rotten tree trunk. They have been very active around the new planting area below the foot bridge for some time. A rat trap has been placed at the base of the tree to help prevent any attack on a nest by rats. It is interesting to note that fauna make use of the old and decaying as something like a tree goes through its cycle. It’s the difference between natural areas and gardening. With natural areas we leave things to a natural cycle with a bit of a helping hand and guidance from us at times and gardening we would clear away all unwanted plant material to ensure everything was nice and tidy.
A little Shag or Kawaupaka (we think) was spotting on the walk bridge on a very wet Sunday. This is the first one that has been seen by any of us. It may be just passing through. If anyone living on the gully has seen one before or can confirm that it is a regular please let us know. It you double click on the photo then it should enlarge so you can get a better look at it.
We were offered an old shade house that was no longer being used. We removed all the shade cloth, weed matting and an irrigation system. We were very pleased to get this and had a really enjoyable working bee in the country. Plans are being drawn up for our shade house so that we can present it to get permission to erect it on the site we have in mind.
Hamilton City Council has given priority to building a walkway to give walkers access to the wet gully floor under the willow canopy. A DOC spec. set of steps have been built to give access beside the eastern side of the walk bridge, a track across the grass area cut with a small digger and a “floating” board walk constructed to float on the mud. The design of the floating board walk was established after a trial in the muddiest part of our gully. 
