People are starting to use the Smart Cages across Franklin, but by far the biggest buy-in has been in Whiriwhiri. The concept was to flip the trapping game on its head, do away with walking lines, rotten animals, re-baiting, and ineffective traps. Replace all of that with high interaction multi-species traps, the type that lure […]
Author Archives: Predator Free Franklin
Garry & Jan’s Kereru #2
It’s a boy, or a girl? Who knows, but it is a kereru fledgling. Congratulations Garry and Jan of Whiriwhiri. In twenty five years they have only ever seen kereru occasionally make nests here, and then watched them fail. Not this year though. Really cool thing is this is the second one from this nest […]
The beasts of Karioitahi
Karioitahi was largely cleared of natural habitat in the late 20th century to make way for our agricultural land, fortunately some pockets still coexist, and replanting of unproductive areas is now taking place. These small pockets are very much capable of supporting our celebrated endemic species, along with our game birds and a few fallow […]
Tomtits, Kaka and Falcon
At Martyn Wright Rd in Mauku we have a sighting from Duncan and his wife of a tomtit but no photo yet to confirm. Tomtits are in the Waitakeres and Hunua’s and apparently in bush behind Onewhero. We are keen to learn of more sightings. They are relatively common in forest areas but rare in […]
Black Piwakawaka/Fantails
We have had 2 sightings of a black fantail, or ‘Black Morph’ (at Patumahoe, Wayne Meads and Mauku, Roelf Schreuder) Roelf took the enclosed picture. We are not sure if it is the same bird. Keep a look out. In the North Island they are very rare and Dave Lawrie from Birds NZ commented that […]
Save your apples and your time
One of the most effective changes we’ve made for catching possums in Timms traps is to stop using apple and cinnamon. Don’t get me wrong, fruit and spice suits possums, but it doesn’t suit me and my precious time. I’m constantly walking past traps on my way to move animals, collect fire wood, fix a […]
Dabchick vs Ferret
We’ve been lucky enough to have a Dabchick nesting on one of the ponds around Whiriwhiri. They’re a cool little bird, renowned for carrying their young on their back’s. They’re not renowned for being able to defend themselves from death machines like cats and mustelids. With an estimated 2,000 of these left they are considered […]
New Traps, AT220 & Flipping Timmy
New Trap An AT220 multi-kill trap – a crazy looking thing that will take out 100 possums per battery charge, re-bait itself and run 6 months or more before a service. Andy Saunders has had one in use and had success with 2 possums in 4 minutes, how’d he know that? The eTrapper sensor on […]
Double Tap
New Bait – Double Tap A few of us have been trying out the latest bait from Connovation. Double Tap. This is an excellent addition to pest control options and we have been finding that both rats & possums love it. It provides an excellent alternative to Pest Off which has the active ingredient brodifacaum. […]
Otaua Silver Enviro School
After a lot of hard work over the last few years Otaua School was last week awarded Silver status as an Enviro School. The significance of this was highlighted by the those in attendance, two Waikato Region Councillors and the Mayor himself. From composting, to large scale vegetable production, a Trees for Survival nursery and […]