We recently applied to the WWF for some funds and we heard this week that we have been successful. These funds will help us support our feral cat trapping activities. Thank you WWF.

Our feral cat project started last week. After a successful two month trial on the Matukituki, traps were placed at the northern end of the Rees valley. The data from the Matukituki trial show that satellite linked technology and methodology work well and are efficient.

We will be doing a bird count on the rivers in the first half of November. The exact dates will depend on the weather and the river flows - last year we had to cancel due to this. The count will be completed over two to three days, weather permitting. We have several people who are volunteering their time - please be in touch if you wish to take part.

We were successful in our funding application to the DOC Community Fund, winning just over $19,000.00 to build and place traps along the Greenstone Road from Kinloch to Elfin Bay. This trap line will target hedgehogs, rats and stoats. We plan to have the traps placed within the next 2-3 months.

We continue to manage this line of 34 traps. Last month 33 of them were found with rats in them. This is the biggest haul since we took over the management of the traps.

We have received some great news. Our application to the Otago Community Trust for funding to support our feral cat project was successful. They awarded us $6000.00. We will use the money in the next 12 months. Thank you OCG!

Last year the Department of Conservation awarded us $50,000.00 to support our trapping project on the Dart and Rees rivers. As we spent the money we submitted interim and final reports to DOC. We are delighted to say that we came in on budget and that DOC have signed off on the whole project.

We did our first bird count on the Dart and Rees rivers in November 2017. A planned repeat count in November 2018 was abandoned due to very high water flows on the rivers. We will do a count this year in early November. It will take place over 2 days, exact dates to be finalised nearer the time and will depend on the weather and water flows. If you want to be a volunteer and want some more information please contact us.

Feral cats are a nuisance nationally and not just locally. They are as much a pest as any other non-native predator. We are working closely with the Lakes branch of Forest and Bird to tackle the problem. Feral cat trapping is done in a different way to traditional predator trapping. Our plans are in development and we hope to start this in late spring of this year. We will post updates here in due course.

The Buckler Burn is a stream that flows into Lake Wakatipu to the south east of Glenorchy. At the end of 2018 we set up a new trap line of 40 traps on each side of the burn. We have done this to stop hedgehogs from moving north along the east side of the lake. We do not have hedgehogs in Glenorchy at present and we want to keep it that way. The traps are serviced monthly by a wonderful team of volunteers from Glenorchy.

Funding from Air NZ has permitted a huge extension of the trap network down all the tributary creeks and into the alpine areas of the track. Evan is delighted at the increased numbers of birds he is now seeing on the track and this was acknowledged by Lou Sanson in his recent Director General Report having walked the track again this summer.

In the November survey we counted 71 wrybills on the Dart River.