Fantail Diary with Maureen

​Now today’s report. We got five more possies!! It was amazing. I get to first trap, the one mentioned above, where a possum has been eating the apple I put out, the clever one. Well today we got it! It must be the apple I put right in front of the trap, number T2.
 
Then on I go down the track and check T4, nothing there and I thought that was the end of it. From there I look through my binoculars at another trap further down and it looks suspicious to me. It is all at an angle. Could be another possum I think.
 
Then I have to go down steep slope to big tree and hey another possum there. That is trap T3! Up I come again and go down to trap T11 and nothing but apple had gone. Rebait. Then up to trap T9 the one I saw in the binocular and another one! Pretty mangled.
 
From there along track to big tree and up to bushline and there it is another one! Trap 5. So that is four possums. The next too are empty. I thought that was it. Then I get up to Northern Line and nothing for first 5 traps and then around corner trap 17 has another possum! That is the first for that trap.
 
The tree line has nothing. But then I had a nice time down the gully cutting a path through the undergrowth with my chainsaw. Until I come to a big drop off from the creek. It must have happened in the big rain. All washed out. So I have to find another way to get down there. Another time. And then I have to stock it with traps!
 
Why so many possums. Well it was a very cold night but dry and possies are hungry this time of year so they come out of bush to eat grass. And that is when we get them. My theory anyway. But they say that winter is the best time to get possies. Not much food in the forest. No bird’s nest to raid. No eggs. No fledglings. No seeds.
 
Did you know that June was our third best month ever? One sort of every day and it all adds up. Only August last year was really much better. Now July hopefully is the same. We already have five. Maybe by end of July we get up to 400!! It is now 371! Only 29 to go.
 
That would be a good result for the first year. 400 possies in one year! Not too bad.