News
Beech Mast UpdateIt seems quite obvious now that during 2019 and 2020 Beech Forests will be headed towards another Mast season. The beginning of 2019 saw an unprecedented amount of seed generated by native trees. Seed fall in areas like St Arnaud and Lake Rotoroa was around 3000 to 6000 seeds per square meter, so this provided a lot of free food to get Rats and Mice breeding. Grampians doesn’t have a large number of Beech trees to produce the seeds, but there was a lot of other seed about. As we anticipated we had an influx of mice and rats but we seemed to have been able to keep numbers under control. However our catches of Rats on Grampians were up over 300% over previous years just for January and February alone. While a cold and wet spell may increase the attrition rate of these pests, we can usually anticipate increased catches for the next year or two. In “mast years” when huge amounts of seed are produced elsewhere, we can expect an overflow of Rats from others areas. More Rats & Mice means more food for Stoats and Weasels. We expect to see an increase of these killers. Pest CaptureRats are a prime predator on Grampians. If we can control them Birdlife will be much safer. In the previous year we had less Rats and we hoped to have put a dent in breeding numbers, but here they come again. There’s a few more Mice about though and that’s not good. Mice are a Trigger species for more Weasels and we certainly do not want them. Possums can be trap shy and there’s a few caught this year so far and there’s always a few about. |
Catches since October 2009 (To September 2019)
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Weka are back
Did you know that Weka climb really well? They come in my garden, see Birds on the feeder and climb up the Ibiza or Magnolia trees and peer down to see what happening. Because they climb so well, Possum traps must be set a minimum of 1.5m off the ground to deter them. |
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