Project Island Song is all go

An operation to wipe out pests in the eastern Bay of Islands with aerial poison drops has been completed with little fanfare or protest.
Two helicopters  were used to drop brodifacoum - an over-the-counter rat poison - on 90 islands and rock stacks in the Ipipiri group, including the popular tourist destinations Urupukapuka and Roberton  islands.
Monday's drop was run by the Department of Conservation (DoC) as part of Project Island Song, which aims to restore native birds and plants and is led by community group Guardians of the Bay of Islands.
Adrian Walker, of DoC, said the operation - a follow-up to the first drop on June 2 - went to plan in excellent conditions.
Fifty people were involved, including 30 volunteers who removed bait pellets from beaches to protect dotterels and shifted a dozen endangered pateke (brown teal) to the mainland.
Traps using the same bait were also set up under floors and in ceiling spaces of at least 100 houses, sheds and other structures across the islands.
Monitoring was now under way to analyse the effects of the drop.
Guardians  chairwoman Fleur Corbett said the group had been preparing Project Island Song for the past five years, with rat eradication the first major step. She was "absolutely thrilled" the project was under way at last.
Other groups, from Cape Brett to Russell, were cutting pest numbers along the coast to reduce the risk of rats swimming back to the islands. The public would be urged to help keep the islands predator free by checking day packs, camping gear and boats for mice, rats and ants.
The group had taken on board concerns about the poison drop, weighing them up against the long-term benefits.
Friends of the Earth co-director Paul Tucker, of Kaeo, said allowing tourists back on the islands within 48 hours of the drop was "unheard of".
After a similar operation on Rangitoto, near Auckland, the island was closed for 10 days.
He was also concerned kiwi could be poisoned by pellets dropped on Moturua and Moturoa islands, both of which were small enough to have been done by hand using bait stations.
However, Mr Walker said no drop in kiwi numbers was seen after the same poison was dropped on islands such as Kapiti.
The only real glitch so far came when a landowner on Urupukapuka withdrew permission for the poison drop on his land. GPS was used to make sure no baits fell on that property, with DoC staff setting up traps instead.
The  resource consent for the drop requires DoC to test for brodifacoum in shellfish, soil, sediments, streams and seawater. A rahui on taking shellfish around the islands is in place until July 22. Roofs were covered and tanks disconnected to keep poison out of household water supplies.
Among the bird species on the wish list for reintroduction are saddleback, bellbird, North Island robin, kaka and kakariki.