Early indications from recent monitoring tell us that all the reintroduced bird species are doing well. We're seeing fledglings being fed by parents and unbanded pateke, toutouwai, tieke and popokotea are being recorded on Motuarohia, Moturua and Urupukapuka.

Another year has flown by for Project Island Song - and its been a productive and enjoyable one, tinged with sadness with the tragic loss of one of our kaimahi in January. We've planted a further 4000 trees and reintroduced more toutouwai and popokotea to Urupukapuka and Moturua. Our volunteers have made weekly trips to bust weeds and monitor birds - with promising results. We're into our third year of Floating Classrooms, providing hands on environmental education for local schools. And you may have seen us at community events including the Waimate Show and Christmas parades.If you'd like to visit the islands with family and friends, the Explore ferry and Fullers GreatSights Island Adventurer run regular trips over summer. But please remember to check all your gear before you leave home for any pests - rats, mice, plague skinks or Argentine ants.

Whether you are a burgeoning naturalist or an experienced birdwatcher, Project Island Song has a number of monitoring projects that you can be part of, and help make a success of.

Throughout the Spring we have been out on the islands most Tuesdays to carry out monitoring of reintroduced species. Through the summer we'll be locating and mapping birds’ breeding territories, before post breeding monitoring in Autumn. Some of our most valuable volunteer contributions also occur at home, where data entry and reporting are crucial to the success of many of our projects. If you are keen to take part, please let us know.

We've launched our vibrant new website.

The first thing you may have noticed is a spruced-up home page, along with an updated design across the site. We really wanted to make it easier for you to find the information that you are looking for. Take a closer look:

Check out this cute chick which was spotted last week in Opunga Bay on Moturua Island. With only about 1500 tūturiwhatu/NZ dotterels left on the planet, they are the rarest bird that we have in the Bay of Islands. We are now in the dotterel breeding season (September to March). Dotterels could be nesting on any of the beaches in the Bay, and they need our help:

Our 2016 planting season was very successful with a further 4000 plants in the ground. Island planting is a logistical challenge for all involved - transporting plants and people over water. And this year we increased to five separate planting sites on Urupukapuka and Moturua.

Weeds are a growing problem. To help protect the islands against weed infestation, the Project Island Song team have developed and are now implementing a long-term weed management plan. The plan identifies how best to tackle priority weeds, and allows us to strategically control or eradicate existing weeds and prevent new ones arriving. Nasties such as moth plant, tobacco weed and boneseed are just some of the weeds that will be targeted by the Project Island Song Weedbusters. Thanks to Barbara Parris, Jocelyn Powell, Tim Armitage, Rod Brown, Theresa Vujcich, Fleur Corbett, with input from DOC and NRC staff to develop the strategy.

8 to 14 January 2017
Eight days of fun free events for families to enjoy, for locals and visiting families alike! Awesome fun for the whole family during the long summer holidays at no charge – Full programme of events can be found here

Biosecurity is a hot topic for Project Island Song – even hotter at this time of year as visitor numbers increase. For Project Island Song, biosecurity means when you're visiting the islands this summer, here's what NOT to bring...

Rana, Viki and the REP team have extended their mainland pest control, island biosecurity checks and maintenance contracts and are now also organising a series of local wananga (training courses).