Blue Duck Bush Telegraph.

[Dan]

 

BLUE DUCK LODGES

 November 2008

 Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au.  Which means???

 

Welcome to the second bush telegraph from blue duck lodges, saying hi and giving a brief update of the goings on. Plenty of water has gone under our bridges since the August newsletter. The blue ducks have nested and are now hatching their chicks, lambing and docking has taken place, the replacement for the Berrymans beekeeper bridge has been officially opened and many top guests and ecowarriors have been through the lodges. The kowhai flower has come and gone enjoyed by the flocks of tui and many kereru. The odd rescue has taken place also.

 

Conservation.

 

Blue duck broods have started to appear, with upto five chicks. Some ducks are still nesting. If you have never seen a blue duck family swimming and feeding in the fast flowing white water, you should. It is a beautiful and powerful thing to witness. The Kaiwhakauka stream near Whio lodge is a top spot to view this.

Trapping of predators continues every month. Not many stoats are being caught yet which is a good sign for ducklings and kiwi young. This will be due to the poisoning operations undertaken, many more stoats are being caught in our new lines in upper Retaruke.

A wild cat got into our pheasant pen and killed all 10 birds!!, only ate half of one, it shows what these predators can do to our native birds. The bounty on wild cats has since been doubled to $50, ecowarriors Rick, Max and May caught the cat when it came back for another meal.

We ran our second Whio fielday in September, a very informative day with top speakers and presentations, it was attended by 48 people. The biggest things to come out of the day were:

•  the estimate that we only have 600 effective pairs of breeding blue duck in NZ.
•  Information sharing between experts and groups.
•  Bob Jordans trap data presentation using google earth.
•  The fieldtrip seeing Blue duck dogs working and blue duck aerial displays.

Ecowarriors.

 

A steady supply of helpers have been coming through, checking traps and helping out on the farm. Rick Bond, a trained stoat hunter from the U.K., where they've been doing this for hundreds of years, has been here three months. We are setting up a trial to see if Ricks tunnel traps catch more stoats and rats than the DOC boxes, as it appears they do.

With ongoing and increasing work volunteers are always welcome out here in the bush!!

 

Media, entertainment and events.

 

We have our first wedding for the Summer coming up. We've bought event gear to run weddings and other festivals. Party, party, all in the name of fun.

 

A BBC cameraman, Dylan Winter is in the process of filming pighunting, blue ducks, ecowarriors and some of Dan's other crazy schemes. Some footage will be available soon on youtube, we'll keep you posted.

 

Lifes a boar have been in hunting and are now making an entire hunting movie here which is planned for market next year. Hunting is conservation out here, and good fun.

 

National Geographic magazine should be out in the new year with some photos of Whakahoro. They stayed in Blue Duck lodge for three weeks, and kindly said in the visitors book it is "probably the nicest place we have ever stayed".

 

 

Whakahoro Rescue Unit.  W.R.U.

 

We have been called upon to perform many recues here over the years, rescuing river users, lost trampers, accidents. A very lucky one two weeks ago, where we pulled the young German woman, Julia Jahn, from beneath a log which had trapped her for 5 hours, really made us think.

Since then we've run a firstaid course through the lodges and are setting up the W.R.U. The goal is to be prepared as best we can with training and equipment, link with search and rescue and police and improve communcation with a satelite phone..... so if any one has a spare one.

Further firstaid and training courses are planned next year, so anyone keen to be involved, sing out.

 

Outta here...

 

Thats by far enough from me, thanks for reading. Summer starts tomorrow, how much fun can you have this Summer??, have a blinder. Hope to catch-up with many of you in the coming months.

ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au.  I am the river and the river is me.

 

Happy xmas and a merry new year!!

Dan and the team.

 

 

Blue Duck Lodge
0064 7 895 6276
www.blueducklodge.co.nz