Birdlife & Rats - Waihi Beach & Great Barrier

Several things really stick in my mind from our trip to Great Barrier - the real beauty, the  overall size, the isolation, the dependence on alternate power sources, the stunning beaches, the friendliness of the locals,the total dependence on boats, planes and the weather to get to and from the island - its not always in your favour when you want to get places and by certain times

But the one thing that struck us as odd was the lack of bird life in the bush. The bush is thick and dense and they are possum free but we had a walk for an hour or so one day and saw or heard only 3 or 4 birds. We heard they have a rat problem and it's not a small problem. One cafe owner from Motu Cafe told us he was getting at least 1 rat every 2 days but since he really go onto the problem the bird life around his property had really flourished to the point that he had a bell bird come and visit every day and this year now it now had a mate.

You could see in the bush the effect of no possums - the lower fauna and the smaller trees really thrived  and it got me wondering about the birds. The cafe owner and his wife do a lot of conservation work for DOC and explained that they look after a couple of islands close by and they were doing all they could to stop the spread of rats to those islands as rats were swimmers and they had a lot at stake.

Having just been for a ride down our coastal cycle track here at the beach I saw more birds in 2 minutes than I saw on the whole weekend  at the Barrier- tuis singing, wax eyes, fantails, quail and pheasants all doing their thing - makes you realize how lucky we are here on the mainland and particularly here at Waihi Beach. To find ourt more about Waihi beach www.waihibeachlodge.co.nz/activities.html