Makarora trapping group help out with bait eggs

The donation of eggs by Central Gold Eggs to a Makarora trapping group will help them with bird monitoring. Pictured at handover of the eggs on Thursday at Lake Hawea are Stuart McKerchar of Central Gold Eggs (left), Hamish McKay of Sailz and Jane Forsyth of the Forest and Bird trapping group.

A considerable donation of bait eggs will likely allow for more funding for remote bird monitoring, a Makarora trapping group says.

The group, made up of 26 Forest and Bird volunteers, have maintained over 400 traps in an area around Makarora within Mount Aspiring National Park since 1997.

They use eggs to traps stoats, and require 10 dozen a month in order to service the trap network, an amount that dug into their limited funding.

After they put out a request to the Egg Producers Federation of NZ (EPFNZ), Stuart McKercher of Central Gold Eggs in Roxburgh was in touch within an hour to supply all the eggs going forward free of charge.

Thursday marked the first egg delivery to the group.

Senior member Jane Forsyth described it as a "marvellous and generous gesture''.

"We have to scratch around every year to find $3000 per annum to maintain the trapping network, so this donation will free up precious money for additional work - perhaps more for the purchase of remote bird monitoring equipment.''

Ms Forsyth said bird monitoring data was scarce in that area and increased monitoring would help "shed more light'' on the effectiveness of the trapping.

sean.nugent@odt.co.nz