Sue Tucker, our
groundsperson, works most
Saturdays with volunteers in
the Park from 12.30pm to
3.00pm. In that short period
of time the volunteers
certainly get a lot of work
done!
In February Sarah Tarrant,
Evan Cowan and Liz Ward
removed a huge rotten
Mulberry tree.
In April a team removed
blackberry from the weka
pen in Rotary Park as it can
be a hazard to the birds. The
team comprised Vianni
Ward and Paul Roberts,
Karen Fitzgerald, Paora
Heke and Josie Butcher.
They brought their own
tools and gloves and a ‘go for
it’ attitude.
They worked
tirelessly on a slippery slope
doing back breaking work.
Also in April, a number of
students and adults from
Saint Johns in Te Awamutu
removed glass that had been
thrown over the fence into
kiwi pens over time. This
had to be dug out of the
substrate. In total they
removed two full feed sacks
of glass from these
enclosures.
They also
weeded the wetland and
removed and pruned excess
flax.
In June Sue led a team to fell
trees and clear the site in
preparation for Nocturnal
House 2. The team consisted
of Karl Formo, Jessica tucker,
Mark Bollard, Paora Heke,
Robert Prescott, Sue Smith,
Finn Ogle, Karyn Fitzgerald
and her partner.
They
carried out a mammoth task
of felling trees and chopping
them up for firewood then
mulching the remaining
material.
Our Rotary partners have
also been busy again in the
Park netting the Ruru
enclosure. Thanks go to
Evan Cowan, Ross Loomans
and Colin Murphy for
installing our new gate and
also Tony Collinson-Smith
for setting up the electric
fence over the new gate.
Throughout the year we
have also had individuals
who have come in and
worked with our team.
Cynthia Steiner worked on
gardening one day a week
over the summer. Vianni
Ward has also volunteered
her time for gardening.
Josie Butcher has
volunteered her time to
begin digitizing and
archiving our bird and
reptiles records. Josie has
scanned all our egg cards so
far so we can compile them.
Greg Crail, a volunteer from
Telecom in Hamilton, spent
a day with our keeping team.
He worked with keeping
staff to clean aviaries and
kiwi waters. He then worked
with Patrick Carr to create
the new entrance for our
temporary visitor centre.
Patrick has also had a willing
helper over the recent
school holidays. Jacob
Kohinga has been working
with Pat to dig out the
Lockwood enclosures and
put in a new sand substrate.