​Today I set out with five new traps in my backpack. Yellow boxes this time. Four inside and one hanging on the outside. All deployed now on the island or Circle Line. All baited with nice apple. You can see the location of the traps on the website. They are all along a fence between bush and grassland. There are just so many tracks from the possums. It would be astonishing if there are not two or three possies tomorrow.
 
That is when I will take the next five traps and continue the line along the fence all the way around the island. Looks I have to order more traps because the ten will only go so far. Also checked about five of the old traps out there and took five off the tree because not working properly. Some of them have never caught any possums. No wonder.
 
Then I took camera back from trap 56 which so far has not caught any possums. And there they are the possums licking the lure from the tree but not putting head in! Why? Are they more clever? Plain to see. Frustrating. So on Thursday I deploy yet another five new traps. A variety which I have not used before. Has to be mounted on tree. So where the camera was there is another tree and I will mount it on that one just to see if it works better.
 
Also the new traps today almost all of them are near existing traps. So we have to see whether they do any better. I suppose they will. It has happened before. Two traps in one place and the possums always go for the yellow box with the apple.
 
Anyway today we have one more possum and one more rat. There will be more possums tomorrow I am sure. 

​Yesterday I went out as well to check traps mainly on Circle Line. Two found faulty. Took back. No possies. I know they are there. Now tomorrow I will pick up 10 new traps in Christchurch. Got it for good bargain. Yellow boxes. They will go down there on Circle Line. You will see on map.
 
Then our count should go up again. I will concentrate on that project all next week. No peeps. That should yield some possies again. So fresh apple will go into them. 

​Did Waterloo Line today. Have not been down there for a while because Piccadilly Line was more important. More birds down there and more bush. But going back to Waterloo was interesting because there is also quite a bit of native bush left and I heard a few bellbirds.
 
It was nice to begin with but then it started to rain on and off. And it was cold. I wanted to check all the traps down that line and see that all is in working order. The first trap was D36 which to my surprise had a very juicy old and rotten rat in it. How delightful. Anyway got it out and put fresh peanut butter into it.
 
The next traps had nothing. Checked also yours number 27. Put new gas into it and it seems to work. Have to see whether more possums come through on that track. The next interesting trap A6 had another two rats. So on and on I went. Opened all wooden boxes and put fresh peanut butter into it. Finally D47 had another rat very similar to the first one.
 
Checked the automatic traps as well and I believe that about four or five of them are not working properly. Next time I will check again and remove them and send them back to be replaced. If they still do replace them as they have stopped manufacturing them. And no wonder they stopped making them.
 
I am now looking for a replacement and have ordered five of another type of trap called the flipping timmy. Yes no joke. That is what it is called. Look it up on google. I only got five because I want to see how they work and if they work. How many possums I might get.
 
So no possums but at least four rats! 

​What a long day it has been and little reward. Wanted to check all traps on Piccadilly Line and some on Circle Line. Alas so many traps not working properly. No wonder they do not make them anymore. Next week I will have to go back and take them off, send them to Wellington and then wait for new ones. Then I have to go again and put them back on.
 
Was cold and clowdy too. Christine went to Christchurch because car needs repair so I started early at 9.15. Got back by 3. That is 5 ½ hours mucking around the bush. But it was beautiful. Bellbirds almost all the way. And the bush is growing everywhere. New seedlings coming up.
 
Then in D27 by the coalmine was my reward: a nice stoat. That counts for 10 possums! 

​Did Waterloo Line today. Have not been down there for a while because Piccadilly Line was more important. More birds down there and more bush. But going back to Waterloo was interesting because there is also quite a bit of native bush left and I heard a few bellbirds.
 
It was nice to begin with but then it started to rain on and off. And it was cold. I wanted to check all the traps down that line and see that all is in working order. The first trap was D36 which to my surprise had a very juicy old and rotten rat in it. How delightful. Anyway got it out and put fresh peanut butter into it.
 
The next traps had nothing. Checked also yours number 27. Put new gas into it and it seems to work. Have to see whether more possums come through on that track. The next interesting trap A6 had another two rats. So on and on I went. Opened all wooden boxes and put fresh peanut butter into it. Finally D47 had another rat very similar to the first one.
 
Checked the automatic traps as well and I believe that about four or five of them are not working properly. Next time I will check again and remove them and send them back to be replaced. If they still do replace them as they have stopped manufacturing them. And no wonder they stopped making them.
 
I am now looking for a replacement and have ordered five of another type of trap called the flipping timmy. Yes no joke. That is what it is called. Look it up on google. I only got five because I want to see how they work and if they work. How many possums I might get.
 
So no possums but at least four rats! 

​Just a little report. Did go out today onto circle line plus northern line. Nothing at all. A few traps are not working or have run out of gas. Have to go back again to re charge. I think I have to get some more traps down there but not the automatic ones. It will be the yellow boxes with the apple lure.
 
Now that the grass is growing quite long I see possum tracks all over. So there must be more. And from my experience around Central Station where we have about 10 of these boxes we got a lot of possums. Because they come out of the bush to feed on grass. They likes clover. Also I found that when I have an automatice trap on a tree and a box nearby such as T3 then the possum almost always chooses the box with the apple rather than the other trap. They like apple too.
 
The only thing is the possum in the yellow box has to be removed by hand! So that means checking more often because a possum too smelly is not nice. But it has to be done. Please say yes. Luckily the possums have a long tail and I always pick them up by the tail. The rats and the cats do not eat the tail so it is always intact even though the other part is crawling with maggots. Yes that happens in the summer of course. And it is getting warmer by the day.
 
Remember we have to make 500 by end of year! Tomorrow I think I go and check on our new rat traps. See what happened. Plus they need to be looked at because silly John when he installed the traps did not always remove the 10 cent coin. I suspect there are a few still with the coin in it and then they do not work. Bloody volunteers!
 
No they were a good help. They always measured the distance and he screwed the traps onto the tree and he carried about 12 traps in his backpack. And Sus carried the drill and the saw. I have them again if they are keen. But maybe they had enough. It was pretty hard on that day. The cold, the rain and everything wet. Poor things. Hopefully I did not wear them out completely. John had to have some cramp medicine from Christine and he drank a quinine water. Poor chap! Have not heard from them since.
 

​Report today!! It is actually two days report. Yesterday I had no time. Went to Butch and Jo for dinner after deploying 5 new traps. Only did 5 yesterday because John and Susie arrived later on around two o’clock. So we went down Piccadilly Line to the coalmine to deploy these new rat and stoat traps. Lovely day too.
 
Had to get the hang of it first. They are not so easy to install. First you take off all parts, like the mount on the tree, then the cap, and off the cap you have to take off the top. Little clips to undo. Then the battery  department opens and you have to remove little paper to make battery work. Then you have to clip it back on.
 
Then I have to open app on the phone and then shake the trap top quite hard until light blinks and then the trap connects to the phone and I have to enter the data like number of trap and location. Then John has to attach the mount onto the tree and then the trap itself clicks into the mount.
 
Then he has to put the lure pottle into the cap and take off the lid. Then he has to screw in the gas canister and test the trap with a little stick. Then the lure thingy goes on top and all should be well. The thing is too that the lure pottle has on one side a little 10 cent coin inserted and that coin has to be removed to make the trap work. And guess what. At one stage Sus asks John have you removed the coin and he looks up and says do not know. So out comes again the lure thingy and coin still in there! So we have to check some other traps going back and some still have the coin in it! Not good! When we came home we counted all the coins we had and it seems to add up. All good.
 
After we had done all this five traps I say lets go up to the lakeside and check those traps up there. Sus stays in car and John and I go and check. First trap nothing. Second one had very juicy smelly smelly hedgehog in it. I remove it and John stays well away from it. Then second trap again had another hedgehog. Smelly too but not so much. Then third trap had another hedgehog! Smelly too just awful to get out of trap. One hedgehog was so ripe that when I tried to get it out holding a leg the leg just came off! Had to go down to the water to wash my gloves off of maggots!! Any volunteers?!
 
Now today was stormy day. It rained all night too. But in between there was some sunshine. So we set off hopeful for better weather. It was cold too. New snow on the mountain! Anyway we packed all remaining 20 traps into our three packs. Got to the gates and started walk down to Central Station and over fence and all along Piccadilly Line to coalmine. There we checked the five traps from yesterday but nothing happened.
 
Then we had to decide where to put these traps. A new line up the stream we did. And then from the coalmine back again along Piccadilly four more traps. Another line went down the stream through dense bush. Then it was onto Circle Line. Every 25 metres we put a trap. We had a rope with us. Susan was standing still and John would unravel the rope until 25 metres was out. Then I would bash into the bush to find a good tree to attach the traps to. Sometimes we had to use a saw. And up steep slopes too.
 
One after the other we did and at one point it was just pouring down with rain and we got quite wet and I got quite cold too. Susan was cold as well and I thought we might have to go back. Luckily I had a rain jacket with me. Saved the day. But we had a good system by now and made good progress and the sun finally came out again. Then when we deployed trap 29 I think it was exactly where I had a new possum trap. We got a bonus because there was a dead possum! After that it was only two more traps to do. But on the last trap, number 32, we were missing the lure pottle! Not sure what happened. Why was there not enough? So we just installed the trap and I have to go down next time with the lure and put it in.
 
I was and I think they were quite relieved that it was all done. 25 traps deployed in two days. Not bad. Hope the rats and stoats will like it. Tomorrow definitely I have a rest day. So three more hedgehogs and one more possum on the tally. Slowly catch the monkey.