During September there were 7 trips to Motuihe involving 71 adult volunteers, 29 Uni students, 50 secondary school students and 6 children. 1 trip was cancelled due to weather. 667 trees were planted. 23 Trust leaders supervised the volunteers.

Upcoming Volunteer Trips
Sunday trips contact Fiona on info@motuihe.org.nz
October 20
November 17
December 8
Midweek trips contact Simon on volunteermotuihe@gmail.com
all FULL for volunteers but leaders needed
15 October
1 November
19 November
29 November
4 December
6 December
13 December

Cultural Induction

From left to right: Lois Badham, Peter Whitmore, Matt Ewen, Max Smitheram Stuart Macintosh (all Trustees), John Laurence (Trust Chair), Delma O’Kane (Kaitakawaenga, Ngāti Manuhiri), Michael Wood (Trustee), Bella Burgess (volunteer and contractor).
 
Species Translocations – Cultural Induction Friday 30 August 2024.  We wish to thank Delma O’Kane and Ngāti Manuhiri for their invitation to the Trust.  Delma shared Ngāti Manuhiri experience of species translocations and cultural requirements with a focus on the survival and welfare of the translocated species.  Ngāti Manuhiri have many years of species translocation experience on Hauturu (Little Barrier) and Tiritiri Matangi islands and to and from locations throughout New Zealand.  This knowledge is very important to the Trust as we receive threatened species onto Motuihe Island, and it improves our understanding of the processes and responsibilities of care needed to be successful.  We wish to acknowledge the support from Ngāti Manuhiri for the wētāpunga (giant wētā) releases to Motuihe Island which had their genetic source from Little Barrier Island.  We were also able to learn about some of the other environmental programmes being undertaken by Ngāti Manuhiri including responses to the exotic invasive Caulerpa seaweed, and the reseeding of mussels into the Hauraki Gulf.

DOC Director General visits Motuihe
The newly appointed DG of DOC, Penny Nelson, visited Motuihe during September. She was impressed by the work the Trust volunteers have been doing and was particularly interested in the kakabeak as part of the rare plants project. 




The nursery is full of colour at this time of the year. Lois sent me this lovely photo taken this month. 

Avian Influenza (bird flu)
August and September are high risk months for the potential arrival of H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), otherwise known as bird flu. In order to protect the birds on our island:

• Practice good biosecurity and hygiene at all times.
• Do not handle sick or dead birds if you suspect bird flu. Signs of bird flu vary but indicators include tremors, twisting/arching neck, weakness, paralysis, difficulty breathing and diarrhoea.
• If you see three or more birds, marine mammals or other wildlife displaying these symptoms, or three or more dead animals together, please report it to the Biosecurity New Zealand Exotic Pest and Disease hotline: 0800 80 99 66.
• More information is available through the MPI website https://www.mpi.govt.nz/biosecurity/pest-and-disease-threats-to-new-zealand/animal-disease-threats-to-new-zealand/high-pathogenicity-avian-influenza/

Shower has a new home
The shower that was rescued from the back of the volunteer house has now been located next to the toilet at the back of the woolshed. A bit of tidying up to do but just about ready to use. 

Work carried out by Chris Cotter and Brandon. (photo Chris Cotter)

Bird Monitoring
This September saw the return of bird monitoring on Motuihe with an amazing group of volunteers. We were lucky to be led by Michaela Scarrott, who has huge expertise, as well as boundless enthusiasm for birds. Bird monitoring involves five minute bird counts - listing all the birds seen and heard within this time at designated monitoring points across the island. Baseline monitoring in 2007 detected few birds on Motuihe - with no tui counted. It is a mark of the success of the Trust's restoration project that this is unthinkable now. The team of volunteers covered 40 monitoring stations across the island - some of which required crawling on all fours to reach due to dense vegetation!
Some of the highlights from the trip were: three groups spotting ruru during their surveys, spotless crake and bellbirds heard at various sites over the island and one kākā being detected! Having bird surveying done regularly on Motuihe helps provide data on the populations of different birds and provides evidence of how translocated species are doing. With species like spotless crake, banded rail and, potentially, kākā introducing themselves to the island surveys will help us see how quickly they establish, give an idea of how many birds there are and if some parts of the island are more attractive to them than others.
Bella Burgess
Seventeen years since the previous bird surveys were conducted, a group of eleven enthusiastic volunteers arrived on Motuihe to perform an island-wide survey to see how bird populations have changed over time alongside the island’s restoration efforts. Five-minute bird counts were conducted at forty sites across the island on the 14th and 15th of September 2024, in a variety of indigenous forest habitats and pasture. Ninety-nine tūī were recorded during the survey, a remarkable difference compared to the previous survey in 2007, when no tūī were heard or seen on the island! The usually cryptic spotless crake were officially recorded for the first time as a self-introduced species; their characteristic ‘bubbling accelerating motorboat’ call was heard during several surveys, and the classic ‘squeaky swing’ saddleback was heard in abundance across the island. A total of four hundred and ninety-four birds were heard or seen, compared to the previous survey, which totalled fifty-eight individuals, demonstrating the amazing progress and restoration successes achieved so far on Motuihe. Thank you to all the volunteers who braved potentially bad weather over the weekend (thankfully, it held off!), donated their time, navigated sometimes overgrown tracks, traipsed across the island, and made it such a memorable weekend.
Michaela Scarrot




NZ Dotterals
The breeding season of the New Zealand Dotterels on Motuihe is off to a hopeful start as the monitoring team recorded two fluffy chicks and a nest. Seeing these adorable little ones brought big smiles all around! This year, the team is supported by a Birds New Zealand Project Assistance Fund to continue our monitoring and increase our understanding and protection of the dotterels on Motuihe. We hope that these young dotterels will continue to grow well and safe 
Hazel Tan



LinkedIn
Motuihe Trust now has a LinkedIn page to add to its social media communications.  Two brief posts relating to recent Kakabeak work undertaken by the rare plant team are already uploaded.  LinkedIn is a great way to stay updated with what is happening on Motuihe.
 
The island's restoration project has come a long way in 24 years, thanks to volunteers from all areas of the community and business sector.  
We want to promote and encourage more participation, team building, networking and sponsorship with companies and individuals.   There are regular corporate teams who return annually and have completed excellent weeding, track clearing, planting and nursery work.  It is always great for the Trust leaders to receive positive feedback from these groups after a solid morning's work.  Recreational time in the afternoon enables exploration of the island or relaxation which they all appreciate.
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
 
Penny Nelson, the Director General of the Department of Conservation recently uploaded a post on her visit to Motuihe.  
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/penny-nelson-80924b21_what-a-fantastic-way-to-end-the-week-a-few-activity-7230079626071400449-jdgw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
 Lois Badham

Trip Reports
15 September Sunday Red Boat trip  
Cancelled due to high SW winds.

22 September Sunday Red Boat trip
After 4 cancellations in a row it was fantastic to finally get a trip away to the island. We had 40 volunteers, 29 International students from Auckland University and 11 from Rosehill college's environmental group plus 8 Trust leaders. . The weather could not have been better, sunny and light winds. 293 trees were planted in a valley above Snapper Bay. The bio diversity was amazing with 20 different native varieties being planted from small hebes to large canopy trees like Karaka, Pohutakawa and Kaihekatea. Everyone enjoyed Hazel's sausage sizzle at lunchtime and Bella led a walk around the Teike track.
Fiona Alexander 

 Auckland University International students with Trust leaders Vicky, Mike, Diana, Bella and Phil on the left. (photo Lois Badham)

Rosehill College environmental group and their two teachers Helen Alexander and Dayle Burgess (photo Lois Badham)

Motuihe Kiwi Camera Grid Overnight trip plus Lizard research
21-22 September 2024
Gorgeous sunshine and a large pod of Bottlenose dolphins accompanied our team of 8 volunteers and 1 lizard researcher as we departed Okahu Bay at 8:30am on Saturday.
Sadly, Jackie was too sick to join us so we re-organised our teams to be able to find some of Jackie’s cameras and were distracted from thoughts of “no carrot cake” by a beautiful orange and almond cake from Joce. Our 4 groups of volunteers traversed some very wet tracks across the island to complete the camera clean, battery exchange, and card swap for each of 13 of our trail cameras. The trail cameras are positioned at favoured burrow sites and are checked every 3 months.
Helping Lizard Researcher:  Matt Turner (Herpetologist with Boffa Miskell)
In May this year, Matt was able to set up a field trial of some new-design artificial arboreal refuges around the periphery of our current monitoring grid for our populations of Duvaucel and Pacific geckos.
On Saturday morning, Matt started visiting 20 of his refuges for his first collection of data. His DOC permit allows him to handle the geckos, take measurements of body and tail lengths, lengths of any regen on the tails plus take photos of each gecko that has chosen to occupy the new onduline refuges versus the standard foam covers on the same tree.
Sat afternoon: We were delighted to receive a call from a very excited Matt, asking for helpers with his data collection.
He was discovering many more Duvaucels in his new refuges than expected. We had “a blast” being his field assistants for the rest of the afternoon. He discovered 35 Duvaucel geckos in just 10 of the large refuges and 2 Pacific geckos in the 10 smaller refuges. It was so rewarding to see the high numbers of very healthy looking Duvaucels.
Late afternoon /evening:
As the woolshed power supply refused to support more than 2 lights, we were unable to complete the processing of many of our camera cards. We hope to have results from our camera grid available in a couple of weeks.
Some of our volunteers explored Tieke track after dark. There were a number of leaf-veined slugs on the flax and, finally, a sighting of a kiwi.
Thank you, camera team, for your 25,000 steps over the weekend and for bringing laptops, card readers and phones to assist with card checking.
Thank you, Matt Turner, for the amazing gecko experience.
Julie Thomson

Matt Turner with a Duvaucel gecko (photo Julie Thomson)

Dreamweaver Trip Tuesday 24 September
Spring weather can be capricious but we hit lucky as 55 set out on the Dreamweaver in blustery sunny conditions.  Teams from Westpac, PAG and BNZ accompanied 6 supervisors to be met by Graeme S, who had 3 supervisors on his boat.
Teams split into:
1. Planting: Phil and Elizabeth led the day overseeing the planting of 294 trees including Puriri, Karaka, Wharangi and Totara.
 2. Track clearing: Lois led a team of 12 making 'Excellent progress of 150metres working towards Korapa (Bald Knob)’.  
3. Weeding: Phil S, Graeme, Graham, Frances and Colin got stuck into the bush to the left of the Calypso track (just after passing the turn for 5 ways). Plenty of juvenile moth, lashings of woolies and the odd rhamnus. Very productive.
Great to see Dina back on the island and Sian had a good day dotterel spotting. As ever a big thank you to the Dreamweaver crew who did a great job, especially as the SWer got up for our departure. We had positive feedback from all three teams, one of whom wants to book their next visit.
No one was on the bow as we ploughed back to pier Z, where we all arrived safe and sound. 
Simon Sheen


Frances Billot was on Simon's trip and she took these photos of Oyster Catchers nesting. The first gives the location and the second a close up of the nest. She sent the photos to DOC asking them to rope off the area as it is a busy walkway for people arriving by boat on to the beach.

Wednesday 25 September Red Boat charter by Home Schooled group
We had 51 volunteers from the Home Schooled organization which comprised a mix of secondary age students doing Duke of Ed, their younger siblings and their parents, plus 5 Trust leaders. The group planted 80 trees including Puriri and Tawapou between the mown grass across the road from the woolshed and the return track. They did the job really well and so quickly we had difficulty finding more work for them. After a walk around the Tieke track which gave everyone a close up view of 2 Tiekes the group went to the beach and some even went swimming although there was a cold SW wind blowing. Denise did well selling $150 worth of ice creams. A good day and a big thank you to the 4 leaders who helped me and to Nikki Waddell who has brought similar groups to the island for 14 years. 
Fiona Alexander

The Home Schooled group. (photo Fiona Alexander)

DOC boat Friday trips
Friday 6 September, Stuart and Lois Woolshed maintenance and Simon weeding.
13th September, John and Lois working on irrigation and planning.

Private Boat trips
15 September Chris Cotter and Brandon shower installation.