Visit to the Wetlands

We had a fab visit to the Wetlands today. Debbie Eddington from ECAN, Conservationist Extaordinaire, met us down at the bridge and began by showing us pictures of some creatures who call the Wetlands home. Some are known to be pests and discouraged, and others are encouraged as valuable members of the Wetlands food web.
We saw lots of native plants, such as flax and toetoe. The flax had evidence of being eaten by native moths.
There were many areas we saw which have undergone huge improvement over the last year or so. Being so near to the rubbish tip, the plantings and windbreak along that side have made a big difference to the overall look of the Wetlands.
Since we have been studying inter-dependence, we were able to see much of it in action here.
We looked at Debbie's tracking boxes, which are clever little devices the students recognised and I didn't. The creatures walk through these little triangular prisms, walking through an ink pad at one end and then leaving their tracks for the DOC workers to find. We saw tracks made by lizards as well as other small creatures that could fit through the tubes.