Transect Work

Forest gecko on fence

                                           
I started a different job at Zealandia today. As kaka nesting has finished and all babies fledged I have offered to help with clearing transects. The whole of the valley is partitioned so that mouse bait stations can be spread evenly throughout. As we have not been able to eliminate mice completely from Zealandia we have to do a yearly eradication programme. The transects become overgrown during the year, trees may fall across them and the markers get lost or obscured. Volunteers were called for and I decided to give some of my time.

Now knowing where I am on the planet has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I struggle with left and right as well as east, south, north and west. I do know up and down however and that was a start.
I clocked in at the Ops shed and collected markers, pen, loppers and a small hand saw as well as a radio phone so that I could call in if I got hopelessly lost or critically injured.

 I set off to find my transect line. On the way I spied a young forest gecko clinging onto the tuatara fence. I had heard they were becoming more visible at Zealandia but this was the first one I had seen. Why it was trying to scale the fence I don't know as if it got over it would very likely become tuatara tucker.

Young forest gecko trying to get in with the tuatara -or perhaps teasing them by smugly sitting on the outside of their fence.

                                       
                                          Mr Tuatara outside his address at 111a.
                                     
Further on I came across a couple of guys tidying up one of the tracks. I asked whether it was better to work uphill or down when track clearing. The consensus was that up was the way to go.
I found my transect line and headed up as advised. This first part was easy to follow as there were plenty of markers. I had to shift a few pine branches and before I knew it I was near the perimeter. Lots of blackberry and gorse here needing clearing so that slowed me down a bit. I was pleased I had put some gardening gloves in. I retraced my steps then set off downhill on a new piece. I ran out of markers quickly and poked about for while till I gave up and had a drink and a snack and a think. I decided to cut my losses and attack it from the lower track. This worked and I made sure I marked out the track with plenty of tape so that I could see the way in either direction. Little North Island robins or toutouwai accompanied me constantly and I reflected sadly that you just don't see them like that anywhere locally other than in Zealandia. Here they are prolific. Here is a link to learn more about them:
http://www.visitzealandia.com/species-member/robin-nth-is/

The last part of the transect was steep indeed. Thank goodness there were strategically placed ropes to help me up. The last part had no rope but was just as steep with few handholds so I made a note that a rope should be added there as well.

 I then checked and found out I had done the wrong transect! No harm done - I had just encroached on someone else's patch and worked there by mistake. I set off to try and find my transect. I looked at the map but I could not find the transect I was after. Very frustrating due to my inability to actually read the  simple map. Finally I hiked back up to the perimeter and worked my way along till I found the marker I needed.  There was quite a lot of gorse and blackberry to cut out which slowed me down. I felt a bit bad about trimming a few natives as well but they were blocking the track and obscuring markers. I worked downhill without too much problem until I reached a spot where I could no longer see any markers. I roamed about without success so decided to call it a day and retraced my steps up to a main track and headed on home.