April workday

April’s workday was pushed back to 2nd May to avoid the April long weekend. A full boat load headed out from Sandspit loaded with gear and volunteers. The main work of the day was weeding and a big team set out with high-reach ‘pod-grabbers’ to seek and collect moth plant pods. Part of the haul is shown below.

Apart from the weeders, a small team headed up to the Pycroft’s petrel colony where mesh barriers were fitted to the outside end of the entrance pipes with the hope of excluding bumble bees. Each year we find up to a dozen of the boxes have been invaded by bees. On one occasion we were unable to remove the bees before the Pycroft’s return in October and a bird was killed when it entered the box.

Hopefully, the new mesh barriers will exclude the bees. We’ll have to remove them before the birds return.

Here’s a photo of most of the volunteers having a well-earned lunch break.