Hosting Chartwell Cub Pack

Building bridges

On Tuesday 6 December from 6:30pm to 8:00pm (actually went later) Mangaiti Gully hosted about 30 cubs from the Chartwell Pack. This was broken down to six teams of five to six Cubs who are aged between 7 to 11 years. One of our Gully members drew up an orientating type activity where each team had set tasks. Things like identifying native plants from a photo and collecting a leaf, potting up seedling cabbage trees to take home, feeding eels in the stream all while finding their way round the tracks in the gully from a map supplied.

These activities ceased at 6.45pm and they all met on a stream edge flat for each team to build a bridge from poles supplied followed by building a small fire each in pre-built brick fireplaces.

The evening ended with drinks of Milo and toasted marshmallows over the fire.

Roasting marsh mellows for supper

There was one adult with each group at all times plus heaps of other adults - probably two Cubs to one adult by the time the Gully people and parents were counted. It was a really fun evening with the adults enjoying themselves as much as the Cubs. What was really great was that this group could experience these “wilderness” activities right here in the city. 

Millipedes Diplopoda

  While on our knees weeding out wild strawberries growing on the gully flat it was noticed how abundant this little Millipede was. Looking up this little critter in my books when I got home I found out there are about 600 species in New Zealand ranging in size from 20 to 100mm. The NZ species have separate sexes and the pale yellow-brown eggs are laid in special cavities lined with or made entirely from soil. Now here is the interestingly weird thing; the eggs hatch into young with three segments. A pair of legs on each side (millipedes have two legs on each side of their segment. Centipedes have only one). More body segments and legs are added at each moult. Millipedes are entirely vegetarian feeding mostly on decaying plant matter whereas Centipedes are carnivorous feeding on insect and spiders.

These were all within the flood plain of the gully floor so we’re wondering what happened to them when the creek flooded its banks which happens reasonably frequently.

Praying mantises eating a Monarch caterpillar

It is that season again when many of us have swan plants growing and have the pleasure of witnessing the life cycle of the Monarch Butterflies. This gives ongoing interest to both young and old. It also brings home the reality that an insect’s life is a brutal fight for survival. Most know that the paper wasp attacks the caterpillar stage of the Monarchs particularly when they are small but have any of you witnessed a Praying Mantises devouring a large caterpillar? Not a pretty sight.

Weta from the wood pile

An interesting little snippet. This handsome specimen of a Weta was found in a wood pile at a home.  It was taken down to the gully and released.

Getting serious about predator control in Hamilton

There are two, with potentially three, programmes being developed to control rats and possums (stoats do not appear to be a problem in the city) in Hamilton gullies. In New Zealand there is very little experience in city pest control to the level that we are now aiming for; to clear all resident (breeding) rats from a designated control area, then to effectively manage the reinvasion. Possums are less of a problem to eradicate due to their slower breeding pattern and lower population.
It would be expected that over the next few years an effective programme will be developed that is safe, reliably effective and financially sustainable. This programme could then be rolled out through the extensive city gully system to protect our native fauna and to dovetail into the planting restoration that is going on in many areas.
Hamilton City Council and Waikato Regional Council are already carrying out control programs on some areas of public land. What is really important is to get the support from those households that back onto the gullies where these initiatives are operating. It may be as little as arranging for a person to have access through your property or could be to have a trap or bait station installed in the gully behind your house and you to service and feed that information into a computer. Whatever programme we end up using we are going to rely on community support to make it effective and financially viable across the city.

The two programmes presently under way (in addition to Council programs) are:

Predator Free Hamilton Trust; running a trial in the Onukutara gully from Crosby Road to Wairere Drive/Hukanui Road intersection. They have conducted research to identify the range of the two main species of rat and possums to guide trap setting locations and will be using A24 Good Nature traps for rats and Timms traps for possums. For more information on this programme contact Kemble Pudney, ph 8525290 or email watsonia58@gmail.com.

Mangaiti Gully Restoration Trust; are rolling out a bait station system they have been using in their restoration area for the last five years to the gully system inside Gordonton Road, Wairere Drive, Thomas Road and Hukanui Road. For more information on this programme contact Rod Ade 852-5256 or Rex Bushell 854-0973 / 021-237-3857

The third one that has applied for funding through Predator Free NZ and Kiwi Bank is Riverlea Environment Society who operate around the Hammond Park – Riverlea area. The community support can start right here by clicking on this link Riverlea Predator Control Funding and giving them your vote to support their funding application. Voting closes on the 25th November. Remember- your vote does count! Or contact Adrienne Grant adriennegrant01@gmail.com

Rototuna Primary School active in Gully

Our neighbouring school in our gully is Rototuna Primary. They are doing their thing in restoring their part of the gully with the support of Enviroschools and Trees for Survival as well as using it as a school resource. Click on this link to see what they are up to. Another one of Rototuna Primary Schools projects was to make a number of Bat (Pekapeka) roosting boxes one of which was presented to our Trust to install in our gully.

Annual Tree sale

We took the opportunity to raise some funds again this year at the annual Tree Croppers Assoc. tree sale held at the Hamilton Gardens car park. Our site in the photo looks a bit sparse but we raised $352. Kowhai plants being so popular we had to get a delivery in to boost our stocks.