The Bream Bay College boys headed up to the trap line for their last check of the term last week and struck the jackpot! With the weather getting warmer, there is definitely some more pest movement and we had five traps with pests in them.

Along the left hand trap line there were three ship rats in the traps – two in the rat traps and one in a DOC 200. Xaiver and Steve had put another possum trap up along this line too and this had been set off, with big scratch marks down the tree but unfortunately no possum to be found. They think it must have managed to g

Along the second trap line there were two more ship rats – again one in a rat trap and one in a DOC 200.

The boys are getting really confident with checking and resetting the traps now and were able to pretty much do the whole trap line independently.

On our way back to the truck we stopped and did our 5 minute bird count. It was really windy and so it was quite hard to hear the birds. Listening to the wind gusting through the forest was very soothing though!

We heard 5 different species of birds – 1 Pīwakawaka (Fantail), 6 Riroriro (Grey Warbler), 2 Rakiraki (Ducks), 3 Tūī, 1 Kotare (Kingfisher).

This week was Aidan’s last, as he is off to the South Island with his whānau. We would like to thank him for the work he has put in on this project! He has been a great team member and we will miss him.