During October there were 6 volunteer trips to the island involving 58 volunteers and 37 leaders. 

Upcoming Volunteer Trips
Sunday trips contact Fiona on info@motuihe.org.nz
November 17
Midweek trips contact Simon on volunteermotuihe@gmail.com
All FULL for volunteers but leaders needed
1 November
13 November
19 November
29 November
4 December
6 December
13 December

Kiosk Operators Wanted
We operate the kiosk on Motuihe every summer from Boxing Day to Easter mainly on the weekends. We have a team of volunteers who man the kiosk however we are always looking for new helpers. The summer schedule has not been received from The Red Boats as yet so volunteers will have to be very flexible. There will be a training session next month and an on-line refresher for those who have manned the kiosk previously. If you are interested please email Fiona on info@ motuihe.org.nz. 


On Friday 4 October DOC's biosecurity team were on Motuihe looking for plague skinks and rats, mice. No pests were found. (photo Lois Badham)

Penguin (Korora) Project
After a training session with Melissa and Julia, that took place on the 3rd of March, we had a meeting with the monitoring team to set our short/mid-term objectives on Motuihe, followed by a first trip on the island on the 20th of April. To date, 8 sessions have been held on the island, the objective for this 2024 season being to prospect the coastline of Motuihe, check the historical burrows previously recorded, and update those data with the active burrows identified since April.
Between intense bush-bashing and walks on the beaches of Motuihe, those prospectings also allowed us to spot, in addition to several remote patches of weeds, an authentic Kekeno/Fur-Seal, very rare visitor of the island !
The active burrows recorded this year seem to be located in some precise site, and not evenly around the island. Since most of those burrows have been recorded in relatively accessible areas, a future challenge will be to monitor those burrows without drawing too much attention on them.
Planned for the end of this year, a training session organised by the Auckland Council will enable the group to use a burrowscope and properly assess the status of the nests in 2025.
 Kalyan LECLERC

This is an earlier photo of penguins on Motuihe but we are sure once the Penguin Project gets fully underway we will be seeing many photos of penguins happily living their lives on the Motuihe coast.

LinkedIn
Motuihe Trust now has a LinkedIn page to add to its social media communications.   LinkedIn is a great way to stay updated with what is happening on Motuihe.
Please visit the page link below and 'follow' us, share the posts with your connections and help spread the word about the great work currently being done by volunteers on Motuihe.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/motuihe-trust/?viewAsMember=true

Oyster Catchers nesting
 
Every year a pair of Oyster Catchers build a nest on the Wharf Bay Beach just where people come ashore. I don't know if it is the same pair but if it is they are very slow to learn that their choice of nesting site has a high risk of being trampled on by boaties. This nest had 3 eggs, about the size of a number 6 hen egg which is rather big for a bird of that size and three of them! Poor mum. You can see dad in this photo out on the beach squarking loudly to try to get us away from the nest as we rigged up a barrier around it to try to keep the nest safe. Hopefully when the ranger returns from leave he will improve our barrier efforts.
Fiona Alexander

Phil sent this lovely photo of three chicks so all three eggs hatched.

Trip Reports

DOC boat Friday trips
4 October John and Lois, John worked in the nursery and Lois worked on the Tieke track.
Private Boat trips
4 October Graeme Seymour took his boat over to the island with Stuart and Fiona on board. Graeme and Fiona painted the shower and Stuart worked on the Tieke track.

Sunday 13 October Threatened plants trip using a Water Taxi
A hardy crew of 8 volunteers, undaunted by poor weather forecasts, came out to Motuihe on Sunday 13th October for the threatened plant project. This trip was the inaugural monitoring of the kākābeak that have been planted this season. All plants are now labelled (which should make them easier to track down next time!) and all 6 sites were measured and plants recorded. A special treat was seeing the coastal harebells, which were translocated to Motuihe this year, flowering for the first time! On top of all the monitoring, the team also pricked out 228 new kākābeak seedlings to grow on for next season, as well as 42 makaka (a species of native broom) and 69 hangehange. Excellent stuff! 
Bella Burgess
PS also on the trip were 2 volunteers working on the Dotterel project and Fiona completing maintenance on the shower. 

Potting up Kakabeak for next season.

One of the threatened plants planting sites is along the cliff side of Wharf Road.

Tuesday 15 October Dreamweaver Trip
This was the first of the Spring/Summer midweek trips with 58 onboard the Dreamweaver including teams from ASB, Inchcape and Electric Kiwi. Jill B, Frances, Stuart, Phil & Elizabeth and Simon were joined by Graeme’s boat crew: Lois, Colin and Anton.
Lois and Jill Bishop led the track clearing charge with 500m done from Trig station to SE beach. The weeding was split into two groups. One headed to the Calypso track just past the left turn for ‘5 ways’. This was a follow up to last time with, again, plenty to do. The second group headed off to the southern end where we followed Stuart’s pink ribbon way to a woolyfest. Suffice to say the resident island weeds took a hell of a beating.
The nursery had another tidy up and a number of large canopy species repotted and weeded. 
There was time for the inevitable beach clean, sun bathing on Ocean beach (no wind) then an interesting boarding at the wharf (’some’ wind). The Dreamweaver team did a magnificent job of getting us all on in good order and we all got back to pier Z safe and sound.
Simon Sheen

It gets a bit concerning when Simon prepares to board Dreamweaver holding the boat's life ring.

ASB group (photo Lois Badham)

Electric Kiwi group (photo Lois Badham)

Inchcape group (photo Lois Badham)

Eastern Suburbs School Children and Classic Yachts 20th October

A keen moth pod collector holding a new invasive weed, Gravel Groundsel.

For the second year in a row school children from the Eastern Suburbs who have been clearing moth plant and pods from their localities were rewarded with a trip out to Motuihe on yachts belonging to The Classic Yachts Charitable Trust. Those beautiful boats we see out on Anniversary Day. Waitangi, Thelma, Frances……
These children have completed a most impressive task. By their reckoning they have collected 68,548 pods and pulled 59,559 seedlings. Using their figure of 700 seeds per pod that is equivalent to 2,084,565,000 (yes: 2 billion) plants.
Three trust volunteers, Frances Billot, Jill Bishop and myself lead a successful day that included a trip to Tieke Track to see tuatara, pulling of a new invasive weed , Gravel Groundsel (Senecio skirrhodon) related to the dreaded ragwort and a beach clean up.
Phil Francis

Phil talks to the group on Wharf Bay beach.

Motuihe Gecko Grids maintenance weekend October 19 and 20
Our annual gecko survey (in early December) of 3 species translocated to Motuihe Island relies on a fit and trained team of volunteers to do the mahi needed to find, clear, repair/replace and flag all of 107 stations across 2 grids of Trakka tunnels and refuges(ACO’s).
The Grids:
Raukawa Grid (below Bald Knob)- is around the release site for:
60 Raukawa geckos (Woodworthia maculata) from Otata Island December 2013
 
Duvaucel/Pacific Grid (near Tieke track) – is around the release site for:
88 Duvaucel geckos (Hoplodactylus duvaucelii) from Stanley Island March 2014
Plus
54 Pacific geckos (Dactylocnemis pacificus) from Tarakihi Island December 2014
 
Our Team:
Emma Chan,  Martin Draffin,  Linzi Edwards,  Kalyan Le Clerc,  Michaela Lambert,  Chris Massou,
Jackie Rutherford,  Joce Service,  Julie Thomson,  Katie Vanderstok,  David Waters,  Alex Waters,
Hong Yao Lim
(13 volunteers -  8 experienced :  5 relatively new to Motuihe gecko survey)
completed the (more difficult) Raukawa Grid on Saturday and the Duvaucel/Pacific Grid on Sunday morning.
This allowed the team to cover other monitoring and track work plus a feast of biodiversity spotting and photography
over our 30 hours on magic Motu-a-Ihenga.
  
See below:

• Dotterel team – completed protection work on Ohinerau and nest-checking. 1 egg hatched on Saturday night.  Also, spotted a pod of Orcas off Ohinerau beach.
• Spotlighting teams – saw 5 wētāpunga in Disaster Gully. Hong photographed Raukawa geckos at night. Duvaucel and Pacific geckos were discovered well outside our monitoring grid (with expert help from Lizard research team led by Matt Turner). A number of stick insects and many leaf-veined slugs were observed on Tieke track.
• Track team – did side-clearing of half of Tieke track.
• Clean-up team – re-organised all monitoring equipment on tractor-shed shelving.
• Wharf Bay – 3 new oyster-catcher chicks were observed feeding with their parents.

 Special thanks to:

• Foundation North Funding which covered our transport subsidy
• Steve Latham for, providing his usual excellent shuttle service, plus, delaying our departure and supplying an empty container for David Waters to grab some diesel for the tractor.
• Martin Draffin for his pre-trip research and creative construction of our smart new permanent flags for some of the difficult Raukawa Grid stations.
• Targeted donations from volunteers which enabled Julie to purchase some new onduline sheets to replace the rotten ones in our grids.
• Hong Yao Lim for his enormous work rate while carrying a heavy camera all over the island and the consequent supply of stunning photos of our thriving biodiversity.
• Matt Turner and his colleagues who were collecting data for his research trial of arboreal refuges on Motuihe. They were generous again with their knowledge and expertise in support of our monitoring programme.
• Our entire team for their endless energy and can-do attitude for even the difficult jobs. This team will form the essential core of the December team which will complete our 2024 Annual Survey of both gecko grids.
  Julie Thomson  

Photos from Monitoring Trips
Hong Yao Lim sent through a wonderful collection of wildlife photos taken on monitoring trips to Motuihe over October. Hopefully the newsletter isn't too big to open on your computers but the photos are so varied that I couldn't decide what to leave out. Such a pity that so many Aucklanders do not know there is a little island on their doorstep brimming with wildlife and wonderful plants.

Orcas playing in the Waitemata.

Tieke

New Zealand Dotterel

Dotterel chick

Tern

Kakariki

Duvaucel gecko

Juvenile NZ Dotterel - the first to fledge since the monitoring programme began last year.