March 2024

Trapping News - Drew Hunter

Wayne and Drew did the Travers -John Tait line on 7and 8 March.

The weather was very good ,making the days enjoyable.

Our catches were 148 rats and 29 stoats. We were very pleased with the

performance of the traps with plenty of double catches and very little sympathetic

triggering.

Trapping News- Rainbow Line - David Price

Here’s a short update with the latest news and roster.

A trapline check was scheduled for March 3rd but no volunteers were available so the check didn’t happen. That means there was no full check for one month.

On March 11th Don McFadzien took his trusty weedeater and did some maintenance on some of the most overgrown upper Valley traps and cleared catches (thanks for your hard work, Don). He got:

2 Rats (94, 103)

4 Stoats (87, 111, 118, 143)

1 Hedgehog (96)

On March 16th Graeme and Eliane Barrow did the run, assisted by Drew Hunter, and got some great catches. Graeme and Elaine are now fully trained and confident to do the trapline run by themselves. Congratulations, Graeme and Elaine, we so appreciate your commitment and enthusiasm. Since there was a decent early snowfall prior to the run, they retrieved the top six Rainbow Ski Area Road trapboxes since they are most vulnerable to snow. (Remember, soon we will take out all the trapboxes from the Ski Area Road since we only clear the Sentinels of possums during the winter months.) Graeme and Elaine and Drew got:

35 Rats (1, 10, 21, 30, 32, 34, 46, 47, 58, 62, 63, 68, 73, 89, 97, 110, 119, 126, 144, 145, 6MC1, 153, 158, 162, 163, 164, 168, 171, 174, 178, 185, 187, 189, 199, DF3)

4 Stoats (42, 49, 190, DF1)

1 Weasel (130)

3 Hedgehogs (5, 31, 38)

3 Rabbits (18, 28, 222)

3 Possums (120S, 135S, 151S)

1 Cat (173)

# Sprung (Data not reported)

Thank you March volunteers—great job!

The next check is scheduled for this coming Saturday March 30th and Tammy and I will do it and take some relatives visiting from the US.

Below is the proposed schedule for April. If you can sign up for one of these, please reply to this email or phone me on 021 125-9885. Remember that David Bartle is eager to go with someone to help but doesn’t want to do it by himself, so if you’re hesitating because you can’t find a friend to be support team, let me know. And if you think you’d like a little more training before being Lead on a trapline check, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll help you get up to speed (someone has mentioned that to me recently but I’m sorry I can’t remember who it is).

March 16: Graeme and Elaine Barrow, Drew

March 30: David & Tammy Price

April 13: ?

April 27: ?

My next roster will, hopefully cover all the winter months and we will be down to one check per month and no Ski Area Road check.

Thank you all for your part in this, one way or another. We are making a difference!

Rainbow blackberry

Please remember Pat Terry’s request for help and resources for control of blackberry along our trapline that I included last month. Pat is doing great work, largely on his own and at his own expense, and could really use some help.

More volunteers

Please also keep in mind that we need more volunteers for the Rainbow Trapline checks, as evidenced by earlier in the month. We are all so very busy and the more we are, the wider the load is spread. Please consider your friends and acquaintances and invite them to join you for a check, and maybe they’ll want to join this good work too.

May the birds become more and the stoats become less,

Trapping News- Whisky, Mt Robert, Speargrass and Village- Wayne Sowman

 Wow what a busy 4 weeks it has been, Thanks to Pip and her team for putting out the Village wasp bait in the last week in February. We also put the wasp bait out at Lakehead to Travers swingbridge to Coldwater plus Whisky, Mt Robert and Speargrass. All the bait which was not taken has been brought in over the last two weeks. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped out - a great effort. Drew also did some wasp monitoring in the Rainbow. [approximately 80 man hours in total for the wasp wipeout]

We finally were able to fly on the 6th March into Blue Lake and Upper Travers to do the trap check and put out the wasp bait from West Sabine hut to Sabine hut and from John Tait hut to Travers swin bridge.

So let's hope we can get back to some normality in April. The trap check for Whisky will be the week of 8th April and Mt Robert, Speargrass on the week of the 1st of April or the 8th.

Mt Robert Speargrass can be done on the weekend if it suits. 

Let me know if you can help and I can work out a date that works.