One more possum in T15 and five rats in the automatic traps. Three more traps deployed: T46, T47, T48. Set out today to label the rest of the automatic traps we deployed back in November. Very frustrating. I could not find three of them! Must go back. One of them connected to the phone, A22, but could not find where the thing was. Must go back especially.
Then one of the traps I deployed down by the coalmine. Had a trap down there long time ago and got nothing. But recently the camera showed possums. So now there is a Timms trap. The possum was on Northern Line. It was one of those traps the farmer sometimes throws over the fence and then they are useless. My theory is that the possums come out of the forest and then walk up and down the fenceline. Well last week I sneaked all traps back over the fence. There are no cows at moment. And hey there is the proof. One possum right in the middle along the fenceline. Also last night was heavy downpour. I did not expect a possum at all. There is another one today but I have not put it onto the list. When I got up to the lookout point and I looked down I could see way down one of the new traps, T37 maybe, and it was slightly turned over. Looking through my binoculars I could see that something had gone into the trap but I was not going down again. Have to go tomorrow. Also near the coalmine I saw two silvereyes. Lovely birds flitting around the ferns. Heard a few bellbirds too and saw some fantails. No kereru today!
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Lovely day today and quite cool. Decided to do Circle Line. Good idea it was too. Basically the first trap T32 had a possum! Then nothing at T35. There are now three traps there and the possum which is there has not been caught. Is it just too clever? It eats the apple outside but that is all. Now I slightly moved one of the traps again.
Then further down T22 had another possum. That line along the bush is now always producing possums. They come out of the bush to eat clover and grass. Then next one T27 also had a possum. So I hoped for four or five but all my other traps had nothing. Then the last one I checked up by lake D250/3 had a rotten hedgehog. Not bad. Three possums for 520 and 1 hedgehog! Charlie Brown done it again! He got a possum in our new trap T42! Excellent. I knew there to be still possums because of camera. But I had two traps there to get it. One is TR3 and the other 34. They did not get it! Now new one, a yellow box, Timms trap, has done it in first night. They just seem better than the other traps.
Then he got a hedgehog in other new trap, T40 and a rat in D47! What a good day. Plus it has been raining all day. Raining all day yesterday and today. All wet wet. But good old Charlie Brown went out there and got one possum and three hedgehogs. That is amazing. Possies usually when it is so wet stay in the bush. Nice and dry. Tomorrow he wants to go yet again onto Waterloo Line. I have given him the challenge of finding our new traps.
Then on Monday it is my turn again. Long weekend. Was very windy today and raining a lot just when I wanted to go out. But then it cleared a bit so I was all packed with four more traps. Their destination was Waterloo Line. There are some gaps in there where there has not been a trap for ever. Actually one is a gully just before your trap, Maureen, and then a bigger gully just after it. I had an automatic trap down there for a while but never caught anything. So removed it.
Now there I a trap T39 in the first gully and two, trap T40 and T41 in the second gully. Then I went a bit further to the old TR3 and again a redundant automatic trap. So that is T42. On the way back I re visited the traps from yesterday just to see whether they might have had a possum. But no. At least today I could use gps on phone and now all are recorded and on the map. T36, T37, T38. On my way back I got a rat in D27. First one and then another one in A3. So two rats only. Better than nothing. So we have to see how these traps along Piccadilly and Waterloo are performing. Are there any more possums left? If nothing happens over the next month then maybe we are almost down to zero. Would that not be nice! If really there is nothing then we move the traps into a different area again and do the same. One corner and one gully after the other. Also yesterday I saw a Kereru again. Have not seen them for a while. It was only one better than none. Read a report by some scientists and they did research on Kereru somewhere up north and they found the Kereru lay one egg per season in a nest. They monitored over a hundred nests and guess 50% of the eggs were eaten by the rats and 38% by the possums! That is shocking. Hardly any survived! Did you know they live up to 30 years! Maybe I did not send report yesterday. Got back here about three. Very tired because it has been so hot. Anyway made my way down Piccadilly Line and found nothing on Central Station. Just ambling along with three more new traps in backback. Trying to find spots where we have not had traps before but places that look promising.
Have been trapping Piccadilly now for more than a year but there must still be possums in there. It is mostly automatic traps we have along there and I fear most of them do not work properly anymore. I received 14 new replacements today! So now do we replace the existing ones or just find new spots? On the map I saw that between trap 7 and 8 there are not many other traps. So soon I find a nice spot just below the walkway and install my first yellow box. Then along further another one and then the third. For some reason my gps on the phone did not work. Just did not pick up signal from satellite. So have to go back and properly position then on the map. When I got home gps worked alright but had to re load system. I cannot re load down there because no reception. So after deploying my traps it was all a bit lighter. Got to D18. That one is well hidden and almost overgrown and often we miss it. But today I was looking for something different and there it was and as a bonus had a rat in it! Then I get to T8 which has been there for a while and I never looked after it much. Like did not replace apple in there but I was actually looking for a rat trap and then suddenly I noticed that it had a possum! A very mangled one. Must have been the rats because it was not far from D18 which had the rat. Interesting that the possum did go into it and try to get the apple which was not fresh. So the yellow boxes might be active even if we do not go every day and re bait them with fresh apple though I believe that makes a difference. Then I went down to the Embankment but no possums just the suspicion that two of those traps do not work anyway. My next lot of traps down there will be yellow boxes. From there it is a long way up to the lookout point but I did go over the fence before that to check our new traps I put in yesterday. Big disappointment. Nothing. Even went back down a bit to check T35 and when I looked down I saw nothing but then noticed that it had been triggered! And when I get to it from front there was a hedgehog. Nuisance. Just clogging up the trap so no possum can get in. Also check Charlie Brown’s traps and the last one T34 had another hedgehog. Bleeming things. Would not believe them to be out there. Northern Line had nothing until I got to T18 and was not even going to bother with it but just in case. And when got closer noticed it overturned and then large possum. So good day. Two more possums, one rat and two hedgehogs! |
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