Bringing the Birdsong Back

James and Siobain Finlow-Bates had read about the ‘halo effect’—native birds repopulating the urban areas surrounding sanctuaries—so with the opening of Kaipupu Wildlife Sanctuary in 2013, they felt something needed to be done to support the native birds. A series of public meetings resulted in a small committee of dedicated volunteers being formed, and it has grown from there.

“Birds don’t understand fences or boundaries,” says James, “so the idea of the Picton Dawn Chorus was to create a predator-free haven for native birds outside of the Sanctuary. Sanctuaries focus on inside their fences and do a fabulous job, but halos don’t have boundaries, so we’re constantly looking out.”

Despite applying for the funding, James says that as the months passed they’d all-but forgotten about the application, so the announcement “came as a hell of a shock”. But six months later they have eight new employees in place and a five-year workplan that they need to deliver in three years!

Team member Jill Evans, who was one of the original committee members, says that “most people would be surprised about what we’ve achieved in such a short time. They see a few traps here and there but don’t realise how much we’ve grown and how effective it’s been.” In fact, their pest tally for 2021 was 13,049—primarily made up of rats, mice, possums, hedgehogs, and weasels—which was more than the previous four years put together (10,602); and that was before receipt of the government grant. They’ve also won numerous awards along the way including the Supreme Award at the 2018 Trustpower Community Awards, recognising the phenomenal efforts of all involved, and the Landscape and Habitat Enhancement Award at the 2019 Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards, in acknowledgement of their trailblazing efforts to remove predators.

“Our Society’s mission is ‘the community working together to restore our native birds by removing introduced predators’, and I think we’ve proven that this is an effective model,” says Jill.  “We wouldn’t have achieved what we have without our incredibly valuable members, volunteers and supporters. I feel like we have drawn the community together.” But Jill says that they can’t rest on their laurels, not just because of their new funding, but because there’s still a lot of work to be done to achieve their goal of Picton and Waikawa being predator-free. Project 7220 was launched in 2020 with the aim to be the first pest-free town in New Zealand, and it is hoped that the current funding will help reinvigorate that project.

While the Jobs for Nature fund has enabled staff to be employed, Jill says it in no way diminishes the need for volunteers, and, in fact, they need more than ever. “We need to expand our membership base and our volunteers as we still have a lot more to achieve. But there’s a trend of younger people getting involved now too which is really heartening.”

James acknowledges that they are victims of their own success as less pests can, ironically, be disheartening for volunteers. “There are less rats to be caught now so it can be discouraging to find empty traps as our trappers want to find pests.” Despite this, he says that the volunteers still enjoy their time in the bush and know there are still rats to be caught.

While funding also remains a constant need, James says that they are incredibly grateful to all their funders, particularly Marlborough District Council and Port Marlborough who have been two of their key supporters since inception. The council provided much-needed seed-funding from day one, and the port company have provided them a home on Auckland Street alongside Kaipupu Wildlife Sanctuary and Envirohub Marlborough at Picton Environment Centre. 

In early 2021 they were fortunate to have a building donated by Rodger Jones, a local businessman, allowing them to consolidate their trapping activities and equipment. James says that when they shifted in there was old signage on the building saying, ‘The Rock’, so that’s since become its nickname. “Out the back is a shed we store equipment in, so that’s been nicknamed ‘The Pebble’—so we now have ‘The Rock’ and ‘The Pebble’,” laughs James. ‘The Rock’ has enabled them to not only build their own traps but to provide free traps to households in Picton and Waikawa to support Project 7220. And they’ve also established a social enterprise, Dawn Chorus Trapping Enterprise, which builds and supplies traps to Predator Free NZ South Island projects and sells them online around the country. “We have refined our trap designs and processes to stay competitive and all proceeds are used to support the work of Picton Dawn Chorus,” says James.

While James says that it generally takes up to seven years before you get a noticeable difference, anecdotally people are reporting seeing more tui, bellbirds, and fantails when they go out in the bush, as well as around the town. And whether it’s just an increased awareness of the bird chorus or more birds, Picton and Waikawa residents are enjoying birdsong once more.