Diary with Maureen

​It was a beautiful day today. No wind, lots of sun and quite warm in the end. Frost in the morning and in the gorge places with frost still. Very interesting trapping day.
 
One possum. It was in trap 11 near bush but in grass on the big tree paddock. Then I went onto Piccadilly line and checked most traps but nothing. But then I got to trap A3, the automatic one, and it showed three kills of rats. Great. And then I get to trap D19, the wooden box, and I see my little marker pulled in which shows me that the trigger had been activated and either something is in it or somebody triggered it.
 
Ha one big fat juicy rat was right in there. Have to clean it all out and reset trap. Then onto trap D20. Nothing. Then onto D21. Again the marker had been pulled in. Surely I thought somebody triggered it. I open and hey another big rat. Same cleaning and resetting. Next was D22, nothing. Onto to D23. To my astonishment the marker was pulled in also. I open and yet again another rat. Then onto D24, D25, D26 all nothing. Then last one on the line D27, down by the coalmines, again the marker was pulled in! Could not believe it. I open and a really dead rat was in there. All rotten and wasted. Must have been like that for some time.
 
What has happened?! I know two weeks ago or so I re baited all those boxes with peanut butter. That must be the reason. So I have to go now and re bait them all again with fresh peanut butter. Funny thing is yesterday on the walk I saw my neighbour and she told me that she saw all the traps and nothing in it. So I really did not expect anything. But what was she looking at? Certainly the one in D27 would have been there for some time. Rats are go!
 
But wait. Then I walk up Circle line to trap A4 and it shows 2 rat kills. Then next one was A5. Again message is 3 kills of rats. Finally we get rats! 11 today!
 
Now the really exciting thing was that I heard one Kereru and saw a few fantails as well. And even more exciting was further along Circle line I hear bellbirds. When I get closer I see a Kowhai tree in flower and among the flowers at least 10 bellbirds having a frenzy on the nectar. Never seen that before. A bit early for the tree to flower but just see how important they are in feeding the birdies.
 
So all in all an excellent day. Tomorrow I will not go down there. Sunday. But Christine will come with me and we will re bait the local traps we have around the golf course. Should be nice.