Jane Johnson at Home Bay |
Dear Friends,
Our two field trips (21 January with Dr Ray Pierce to Peach Cove, and February 4 with me around the Smugglers track) were well attended (about 45 and 33 Friends respectively) with ages ranging from less than 7 to over 70. The feedback received was very encouraging - encouraging enough to make me think we should do this sort of thing again (see below). Thank you to those of you who turned up to take part. Your enthusiasm and interest made the trips a pleasure to run.
Pictured is Jane Johnson. Jane is a Friend of Bream Head from South Fallsberg, New York, USA. Jane was due to walk on the Smugglers field trip but a change in flight schedules put paid to that. Jane was keen to make an active contribution to the welfare of the Reserve. I managed to steer her towards Home Bay where she and I picked up plastic flotsam and jetsam. We came back later by boat and removed the bags plus enough foam plastic from a couple of old mattresses to fill two more. The white planking behind Jane is part of the hull of a launch. It’s still there.
Jane writes “Since being introduced to Bream Head on a visit a year ago, I have dreamed of coming back to offer some time as a volunteer to this most amazing and rare place. Helping to clear the beach at Home Bay was a great honor for me, inspiring and surprisingly fun - wrestling bits of fishing line from under rocks and sorting through shells for concealed plastic objects! I hope to have the opportunity to come back in the near future with my husband to be involved in longer projects. We wish the DoC staff and Friends of Bream Head our warmest regards and encouragement in preserving this treasure in your midst. Thank you!”
In the Xmas Newsletter mention was made of the withdrawal of permission for the predator proof fence to cross a section of private land. We are currently considering a re-routing of the fence line. Hopefully we will have good news about this soon. The Whangarei Report wrote that we hoped to have the fence in place this year. That was an error made by the reporter. We don’t have a construction date at this point. Comments that advertising would appear on the fence were also inaccurate.
About 95% of the Reserve’s coast line is rocky shore, the intertidal and maritine zones of which have some very specialised fauna and flora living within them. I’m keen to run another field trip which will look at some aspects of the fascinating ecology of rocky shore biology - but more about that later when I’ve done my planning.
For those of you who enjoy a good hike, the ridge from Ocean Beach to Smugglers Bay offers such a one. Sturdy boots, a walking stick, a water bottle, appropriate clothing, a camera, and lunch (of course), are part of my kit. The views are stunning. Pictured below my daughter, Briar, enjoys an apple as we take a break on the ridge high above the farms behind Ocean Beach. We walked from the Peach Cove car park on Ocean Beach Road to Smugglers Bay car park in 3 hours (including breaks); add another one and a half to two hours if you start at Ocean Beach and walk the whole ridge. Some people prefer to start at Urquhart Bay and say that when going this way the views are even better.
Best wishes,
David Monro
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