Although Kaipupu Point is sealed off by land with a predator proof fence, volunteers have found rats still get in from the water.
Picton Dawn Chorus chair James Wilson told Afternoons making the town pest-free was the only way for the native bird population to recover.
"The bird life on Kaipupu and the bush itself is just flourishing now.
"There's something like four times as many birds on Kaipupu as there is on surrounding land."
The group will be putting lethal traps into every fifth backyard - targeting rats, stoats and possums - along with an extra 300 traps in the bush.