Our first trip to Pukekauri dam, involved some lugging of heavy traps, peanut butter and oatmeal fingers, and spending some moments of silence listening to the bush in order to identify what birds are around us. We learnt that if our trapping is successful then we will see a rise in many of our common bird species, such as, Kōtare/ Kingfisher, Pīwakawaka/ Fantail, Pūtangitangi/ Paradise shelduck, Riroriro/ Grey warbler, Kererū/ NZ Wood pigeon and Tuī/ Bellbird.

Students created trapline markings on our trail using blue tape to mark our trap sites and pink tape to show our trail. We have started with 6 DOC200 traps and 10 rat traps. We set the 6 DOC200 traps approximately 100m apart, through varied terrain higher in the bush up from the dam waterline. We spread out our rat traps near the DOC200 traps – in which we hope to catch stoats.

Students are broken into small groups and will monitor several groups each, tracking our catches every couple of weeks. It was such a great first day with the weather turning on some sun even. We look forward to our first check next week!