Great day it was. They all came out and we had a gala dinner for my birthday! Champagne and wine too plus a bit of whisky later on. I then opened a small bottle of Swiss whisky from Appenzell.
 
So next day we went all trapping. I did not bother with new traps as it would have been too cumbersome with five of us. So only checking. It did not take too long and D22 yielded a nice little rat. Very exciting. Sue lost some points because she walked right past the trap and did not see that it was triggered. It was very obvious. She has to do more learning.
 
Then on from coalmine up the hill and Jon goes down steep side to check T47 and he shouts out that he has got a possum! Very good. From there on we walk lower Circle Line and I tell them to look out for T48 the trap that was lost. We get to the spot where it should have been and I cannot find it at all. But Niall looks down the other side and spots something yellow.
 
He ventures down and indeed it is the trap. He brings it up and we install it again in the old spot. From there nothing much but when we get to the new traps Jon and I deployed last week, the electronic ones, things improve. Almost all traps have kills to report and in the end we have 25 kills. Jan helps me too to relure and regas two traps which have not been done for a while. That is why so many kills.
 
From there up to lookout point and then along fence and trap T32 has yet another hedgehog. The fourth hedgehog there! Then over we go to Northern Line and walk inside the trees and nothing until I get to last one and another possum! What success. So we have two more possies, one more rat, one more hedgehog and 25 kills which I allocate to the rat count.
 
Now are are safely across the 1000 predator line. And the tally for possums is getting to 600, in fact 14 more to go. 

​Good report. Was out with Jon today. He wanted to come out escape the city most likely. So I decided that we were going to put 10 more A24 traps out there. These are for rats and stoats and automatic. They had to go down towards the sign to river. That is another of my island locations. There are always bellbirds and fantails. So they need protection.
 
As we walk down along the walkway just before the coalmine suddenly the phone starts pinging! Hey that must be the traps we put up there back in December. There were 25 of them. I check and it shows new kills. On we go and every few 50 metres or so it pings. Could not believe it and each time it showed kills. Kills, Kills, Kills. I was ecstatic! And Jon was astonished.
 
Anyway would you believe it in the end it amounted to 36 kills. Rats I have to assume for lack of bodies. But anything that gets killed is good. Could be stoats, mice even or hedgehogs. But the hedgehogs I usually see fallen out of the traps. Just shows what happens in a few weeks. I did check these traps back in January. Quite a long time but they just keep on working and killing. And that is the good thing about these traps. I do not have to check them all that often. That is what we did down in Fiordland. There are thousands of these traps doing their work all year round. And only every six months somebody goes in and puts fresh lure into and replaces the gas.
 
But then we got to the sign and we go to an old station for possum. Trap 15. There we put up our first new A12, number A33. Then we measure the distance with a rope. Around 30 metres and we put another trap in. A34 and so on in fact then along Embankment. A35 and A36. After that there is a high cliff and no space for traps. You can all see it on the map.
 
Back up to the walkway again and close to sign we put trap A37. Then on up the hill and every 30 metres again a new trap A38, A39, A40 and A41. So that was our 10 traps and from there we make our way back home via lookout point and Northern Line. Nothing at all. No possum at all. But we rebait some of them and maybe Charlie Brown will come again and check them. That took about five hours. Christine no happy. Too long. But a job needs to be done! The birdies need protection. And we saw many many fantails. Each time we put up a trap one or two fantails would fly around all very excited and happy.
 
I have day off tomorrow and then we have peeps for a few days. 

​Not much to report but one possum by Marcel in T40. That trap is near your trap Maureen. It has been there since 2nd February and so far had nothing. So I wanted to move it some other place. Maybe now I leave it for another while. It just looks like good possum country and T41 is nearby as well installed the same day and so far no possum either. What is happening. Maybe your trap has taken out most possums from that area.
 
Anyway one possum is good. Four possums now for four days in April! If this continues then 600 by end of April is achievable. 

​Three more possies today and one rat. Was a big day today. First since you know what. D9 at the beginning had a rat. Has been a while for that trap to catch something. One has to be patient.
 
Then not too far along just by chance I saw trap T38 turned over and it had a possum. Only the second one for that trap. On Piccadilly Line too! Just shows you think all the possums on Piccadilly have gone and then another possum!
 
Then up to Circle Line. Had to get to T24 to get a possum. It must have been there for a long time. Not much left of it. I did have an inkling that there was a possum because last week when I went with Jon we took the top track and from there you can just see the trap and with my binoculars I thought it looked overturned. But it was too far to go down and check properly. So there it was. A foul stinking mess.
 
So I left quickly and made my way around the other traps and got to T31 and there was another one. Not quite as bad as the one before but not nice either. Disposed of it in the bush and rebaited and made my way up the hill. No more from then on. But not bad getting three possies and a rat.