Off i went along the milford road today to look for ducks. First stop, the chasm. headed up the west branch of the cleddau following the beeps but soon decided that i was going up the wrong branch and cut across to the main river. mistake # 1. a "shortcut" is never a shortcut in fiordland. Swamps, bush lawyer, rotten tree falls that trap you up to your knees in decomposing muck. finally made it out to the river and then proceeded to chase phantom beeps around in circles for over an hour. Get a strong signal in one direction, head towards it, signals fades away. signal strongish back where i'd come from. turn around, head back towards signal, signal fades away. drives you mad it does. found donne who was looking kinda shifty, like he might have a mate on a nest. this fueled the search but i eventually gave up and wandered off up a creek that i'd never noticed before. after about 200m, the signal started to get strong again. followed the creek for about half a km, getting very (over the waist) wet in the process. then once again decided to go overland which again was a mistake. came across a big pile of feathers and a skeleton which sent the old heart rate racing but the signal wasn't that strong, so kept going (looked more like a kereru anyway). After a few more circles, a large number of toi toi cuts and some careful poking around, i found her. Little louise (or lousie as my lovely colleagues call her) sitting on a nest. Not sure how many eggs she has or who her mate is. Hopefully that wee stoat beastie doesn't find it. Wandered back down the river (the nice easy way that i would have come if i hadn't spent the morning chasing bounces) and ran into angus, the most likely candidate for a mate, hanging out on a rock.
Mission one complete, I drove back to monkey creek to look for trinity. Jumped out of the truck, flicked on the TR4 and almost blew my eardrum when the beep boomed in. Crossed the road and located the source of the beep in a toi toi about 5m from the road. Took me 25 mins tho to actually work out where in the toi toi she was sitting. Snapped on a pair of latex gloves and went in. Stole 5 rather grubby looking eggs and popped them in the incubator, while being watched by a busload of interested tourists, all asking stupid questions as tourists are want to do. Bit nerve-wracking being in sole charge of 5 eggs belonging to an endangered species. wouldn't want to scramble them. Drove back to town and was ambushed by a tv cameraman (never again will i radio ahead to let people know that i am coming). Had to put on the silly little microphone and give a little speal about the exciting things that i had been doing. going to be very dorky. No idea when will actually air but i will make sure that i don't mention it until after the fact. Looks like the eggs are only about 5-6 days old, so will be a month before they hatch (assuming my driving was slow and careful enough)
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