Uninvited visitors…

Two uninvited visitors have been found in the valley by Richard Aickin and his wife Jan.
An Australian Water Dragon was seen but not caught a few weeks ago and has not been seen since.
Recently they came across a turtle (refer photograph below). Richard said ‘Not sure what we’ll find next, will need to call in reinforcements if it’s a crocodile!’. Both the Australian water dragons and turtles are becoming a real problem in the Auckland area and we have been advised by a representative from MPI that it will soon be illegal to keep the water dragons as pets. It is hard to know if these were abandoned pets or escapees.

Pest Control 2021

We are continuing to have success catching pest animals which confirms our efforts need to be ongoing, even when the traps are empty. When we checked the traps on our property and up Mt Pleasant Drive on 7 February, the tally was 1 weasel, 1 stoat, 6 rats and 2 mice. This excludes the self-setting traps which are positioned in the less accessible areas. A week later we met with Errol Albon who has kindly offered to assist us with checking our traps and, within the week, 6 more rats, 1 mouse and a freshly caught weasel, snared by a snap trap, were added to the total. We don’t recall catching a weasel in a snap trap before and the lure was peanut butter and Oreo cookies, rather than rabbit meat, so this victim must have had a sweet tooth! There doesn’t appear to be much possum activity. Nik will check the self-setting traps within the next few weeks and reposition them

We have been communicating with the Leigh Coastal Care group regarding a more co-ordinated approach to clearing weeds in the surrounding area. A priority is the wilding pines along the coastal walkway, some of which are getting quite large, and climbing asparagus which is getting established in the valley.

Pest Plant Control 2021

Our pest plant control efforts have got off to a good start for 2021. We have been busy clearing various invasive weeds including tradescantia, African Clubmoss, climbing asparagus and mothplant.

The pratia angulata (panakenake) planted in 2017 (lovingly propagated by John Harvey) which was washed downstream after a heavy rainfall, is showing up in various parts of the valley and appears to be thriving.

There has been a noticeable increase in native bird life. We will continue to keep up the momentum with our trapping efforts.

We have set up a Trigene station at the beginning of the valley walkway. Please ensure you spray and brush your boots before entering or leaving the valley.

Working bee : December 2020

Our last working bee for 2020 was held on Monday 14 December. 5 members of Auckland Council’s Central/South Auckland biosecurity – environmental services unit held an end of year team building exercise and spent 20 hours carrying out pest and weed control in the valley.

BACK IN THE VALLEY … AT LAST!

On Saturday, 14th of November 2020, eight volunteers spent a glorious spring morning clearing weeds on the Harvey’s Wetland area. We have been very keen to get stuck into this area since March, but had to cancel due to Covid-19 lockdown.
We made huge progress, as can be seen from the following before-and-after photos. There was great excitement when a large frog was discovered in the undergrowth.  Unfortunately, it didn’t stop for a photo.
A big welcome to new members; Richard Aickin and his wife Jan. They proved to be very hard-working volunteers and it is great to have them on board.
Many thanks to Norma Harvey who served a delicious lunch.

Pest Control and Pest Free Leigh Launch

The Pest Free Leigh Launch held on Saturday, 17 October was a huge success and it was great to hear about their vision for the area. The hall was full of local Leigh and Mathesons Bay residents and holiday homeowners, all eager to do their part. Cam Rathe provided an excellent presentation on pest control and it was exciting to hear plans are underway to release Kiwi onto Mt Tamahanga withinin the next 12-18 months.

Leigh residents will be trapping rats with free traps provided by Pest Free Leigh and, in time, the plan is to progress to the outlying rural areas. The efforts of the various volunteer community groups should help to make the Pest Free Leigh dream a reality.

A big thank you to Jo Evans who put together a wonderful display of the achievements of the LHVS over the past 12 years.

On Saturday, 17 October, Nik and Matt Deeling spent 4 hours positioning A24 Good Nature traps in the kauri block.
The next plan is to intensify trapping on our well-established tracks and to add more traps to the kauri block.
To date (from what we can gather from rotting carcasses) we have caught 24 possums and 42 rats with the self-setting traps.

Pest free launch display board 17th October 2020
Pest free launch display board 17th October 2020

Repair of Fences

Many thanks to Richard Taylor and Jo Evans who spent approximately 10 hours on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, positioning 7 leaning posts, re-stapling loose battens and adding 8 permanent strainers to the fenced catchment area on Julie Turner’s property.  Richard spent another few hours back-filling the holes.  The Leigh Harbour Valley Society funded the cost of materials. 

We plan to organise a weeding day in this area before the end of the year. 

Once again, we would like to acknowledge and thank Trees for Survival and Ponsonby Primary School who provided the trees for this project.

Working Bee

Our first official working bee for the year was held on Sunday, 2 August after having to postpone previous planned events due to Covid-19. It is over 9 years since weeds were cleared and replanting was carried out on council land in front of and behind the brown cottage and along the paper road. 13 volunteers spent 3 hours clearing jasmine, blue morning glory, ivy, tradescantia, moth plant and other weeds.

A big thank you to Ashleigh Lee for providing a delicious lunch and to Nik and Matt for assisting with clearing weeds and spraying. Everyone agreed it was great getting back into restoration mode.

Self Setting Traps

Brush tail possums, Norwegian rats, ship rats and kiore beware!, the new AT220 traps have been installed in the valley. On Saturday 11 July, Nik and his colleague, Matt spent about 8 hours positioning the traps and attaching ramps to encourage the rodents to walk directly into them. One of the traps was checked the next day and in the space of one night had successfully caught a possum.

Funding for these traps was provided by DoC’s Community Fund.

With our efforts and pest control also being carried out by the organisers of the Little Blue Penguin/Korora project, Jenny and Tony Enderby and others who have been trapping consistently along the Leigh Coastal walkway, we are starting notice an influx of fantails (piwakawaka); a very encouraging sign.