We checked our first station and discovered a very maggoty rat. We placed 3 new rat traps along our line and also came across a possum we had caught.

As we approached station 5 we heard a rattling and banging in one of the traps. This was the first time we had discovered a very freshly caught rat. We had to humanely kill this rat so it would not continue to suffer.

We then caught one more very large rat and that made up our total of 3 rats and a possum for our visit (we didn’t quite beat BBC’s total of 5 rats!)

As we returned to the dam we took a look to spot the weweia and could just see one of their heads popping out from behind the reeds. The Riroriro (grey warbler) could also be heard throughout the bush and during our bird count. We also heard a Shining cuckoo (Pīpīwharauroa) as we walked, spring is here.

Carter located a female intact kauri bulb also and Steve showed us how the seeds function when this bulb drops and the seeds spread themselves out.

See you next time!