Things are finally a bit quieter on Codfish Island after the hectic breeding season last summer and we have been given the opportunity to volunteer our time to some of the other DoC people who helped us out during the last breeding season.

I was lucky enough to spend two weeks doing Mohua surveys in the Takitimus and around Lake Hauroko for Ros Cole from Murihiku Area Office. 

Jack Bauer (a DOC hunter from the Waikato Area Office) and I spent two days in the Takitimus, followed by a week in Fiordland looking for mohua by playing tapes of their calls and trying to get a response from them. Mohua (Yellowhead) are the South Island equivilent to the Whitehead in the North Island.  Mohua are a small hole nesting bird that used to be widespread throughout the South Island and are now becoming very restricted to areas under sustained predator control or pest free islands. They are very territorial and at this time of year are in family groups and relatively straight forward to detect. Detection is enhaced by playing mohua calls and seeking a response to the recording. Mohua were last surveyed throughout these areas in the late 1990's and were reasonably common so it was good to get a bit of a handle on things now.

Our Fiordland adventure started at Lake Roe hut where we walked down to Halfway Hut and stayed the night. The next day it was off to Hauroko Burn Hut to be greeted by a wall of sandflies that made us reluctantly stay inside, admiring the view from the windows. On the way down we saw some kiwi prints on the track and encountered kea, mohua, Robins, Tomtits and other native birds. The next day we caught the boat and travelled down to Teal Bay Hut, where the sandflies weren’t so thick and the views were just as amazing, and it lived up to its name as there were teal (with chicks) in the little bay. After a night there we left the comfort of the huts and set off for the Rata Burn to go fly camping. This also involved wading through thigh deep water, and bush bashing through head high crown fern, boulder hopping up creeks and sloshing through swamps. But we loved it and we had the cheeky bush robins for company, we even had a kiwi run under our tent ropes at night time, and there was always the sandflies to keep us moving along.

Mohua unfortunately appeared to be less common than in the late 90’s - this could be a feature of the poorer summer but is more likely a reflection on the high rates of predation and recent beech mast cycles. This makes the places with predator control, such as the Catlins, all the more important for hole nesting species like mohua and continues to reinforce that we can make a difference to species conservation. Although the numbers of mohua were disappointing, Ros was glad to hear we saw large numbers of robin and stoked to hear about the kiwi! It was great to be able to help out on another project and work with other amazing native birds in an amazing setting.