Saturday, 15 December 2012
Happy Christmas to You from Me
My mass-produced but sincere and heart-felt wishes to everyone who pops in here at TLVD, for a wonderful Christmas and love, peace and good health in the new year.
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Monday, 10 December 2012
Possum Update
Caught the big male on Friday night.. I took him up to the pest man's house on Saturday early and he told me that the other one was a female. And that she would have had a joey just old enough to be off her back.
Over the weekend I've been thinking about whether it would have survived, and was wondering what had happened to it because I hadn't heard anything in the ceiling. No noises, that is, until early this morning when there was a thump on the roof... When I went out with my torch to investigate I discovered who is still at large. Yep. The joey. About the size of a big kitten. The torch light must have made it think it was morning because as soon as I went back to bed I heard it climbing up inside the wall and settle down to sleep in the narrow ceiling space above me.
Time to bait the trap again.
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| The big male |
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| Joey |
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Down at the Beach
Some images from last week's dusk picnic on the beach. We had shark 'n taties and watched the moon rise.
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| It must be Shirley Valentine... |
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| Looking south-ish towards Whakatane |
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| Looking north-ish - the hill on the far end of the spit is Mount Maunganui - an extinct volcano. |
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| Getting dark. Time to go home. |
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
A Possum in a Trap
For the last five nights I have set the possum trap. On dusk I lift the heavy sliding door up, slip the metal bar underneath it just a smidgeon, throw a slice of apple at the back behind the trip plate, and two smaller pieces just inside, and go inside my studio to continue painting, and later to bed.
Up until last night I had caught three blackbirds. But no possum.
Last evening at about 10, long after dark, there was the usual sudden crash on the roof of the studio (luckily I wasn't in the middle of a fiddly bit) but when I went outside to have a talk to the brush-tailed offender, it wasn't interested in talk at all, leaving me only a glimpse of a tail as it raced over the hip of the roof. Which seemed a bit odd, given it was incredibly bold before...
This morning at dawn (5 bloody 30) the usual shuffling and scufflings above my head in the ceiling told me that once again I'd not caught my nocturnally active guest.
So it was with great surprise that when I padded out in my dressing gown to release the usual captive bird, I found a very agitated and quite young other possum therein.
It was so scared I took pity on it and covered it with an old bedspread. Later when the pest man was up, I took it up the hill to his house. His two huge dogs will get a free feed tonight...
Meanwhile my house guest still poses a problem. I suspect it was he that sprung the trap the first night, and now knows to steer clear of it. He's not stupid. What worries me a bit, is that this morning he seemed to be having an argument with someone up there - a few growls and a muffled screechy yowl or two. Do possums talk to themselves?
And anyway, doesn't he know that 'after three days visitors and fish both go off'*?
* Old Chinese proverb.
Up until last night I had caught three blackbirds. But no possum.
Last evening at about 10, long after dark, there was the usual sudden crash on the roof of the studio (luckily I wasn't in the middle of a fiddly bit) but when I went outside to have a talk to the brush-tailed offender, it wasn't interested in talk at all, leaving me only a glimpse of a tail as it raced over the hip of the roof. Which seemed a bit odd, given it was incredibly bold before...
This morning at dawn (5 bloody 30) the usual shuffling and scufflings above my head in the ceiling told me that once again I'd not caught my nocturnally active guest.
So it was with great surprise that when I padded out in my dressing gown to release the usual captive bird, I found a very agitated and quite young other possum therein.
It was so scared I took pity on it and covered it with an old bedspread. Later when the pest man was up, I took it up the hill to his house. His two huge dogs will get a free feed tonight...
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| Brush-tailed possum - unwanted, but so appealing. |
Meanwhile my house guest still poses a problem. I suspect it was he that sprung the trap the first night, and now knows to steer clear of it. He's not stupid. What worries me a bit, is that this morning he seemed to be having an argument with someone up there - a few growls and a muffled screechy yowl or two. Do possums talk to themselves?
And anyway, doesn't he know that 'after three days visitors and fish both go off'*?
* Old Chinese proverb.
Friday, 30 November 2012
A Possum on my Roof
For some time I've been aware that I've had a visitor around the house. My silverbeet has been demolished for months now, and the giveaway is the munched roses. Well, that would be the giveaway, if it weren't for an even bigger giveaway - the clomp, clomp, clomp on my studio roof. He or she has been checking the bowls of pantry-mothed porridge oats I've been putting out for the birds.
Tonight I got some good shots. This creature can't stay, and I already have a trap set, and a neighbour primed for the dispatching job, but it's a pity these appealing marsupials were ever introduced into New Zealand. In Australian their enemies are dingoes, the vegetation is far less palatable, and bush fires are a regulator. Here in New Zealand they have no natural enemies, and they have had a devastating impact on the ecosystems. They do much damage to the bush, not to mention the native bird population (eating both eggs and young). Around my property we have More-pork, silvereyes, fantails, tui, and even the occasional kaka and kereru, quite aside from all the imported finches, blackbirds and thrushes etc. It has to go.
This one seems remarkably tame, and took very little notice of me getting the outside chair for a good view.
Perhaps it knows my smell and my voice. In fact that's certain: it sleeps in the ceiling space above my bedroom, returning about 5.30am. This morning I found myself shouting 'Go to SLEEP why don't you!' as it shuffled and turned and wriggled around finding a comfortable spot amongst the insulation up there.
And here's the moon rising out of the Bay of Plenty sea on Wednesday night, when a friend and I went down to the beach to eat our fish 'n chips and watch it.
Tonight I got some good shots. This creature can't stay, and I already have a trap set, and a neighbour primed for the dispatching job, but it's a pity these appealing marsupials were ever introduced into New Zealand. In Australian their enemies are dingoes, the vegetation is far less palatable, and bush fires are a regulator. Here in New Zealand they have no natural enemies, and they have had a devastating impact on the ecosystems. They do much damage to the bush, not to mention the native bird population (eating both eggs and young). Around my property we have More-pork, silvereyes, fantails, tui, and even the occasional kaka and kereru, quite aside from all the imported finches, blackbirds and thrushes etc. It has to go.
This one seems remarkably tame, and took very little notice of me getting the outside chair for a good view.
Perhaps it knows my smell and my voice. In fact that's certain: it sleeps in the ceiling space above my bedroom, returning about 5.30am. This morning I found myself shouting 'Go to SLEEP why don't you!' as it shuffled and turned and wriggled around finding a comfortable spot amongst the insulation up there.
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| An Australian brush-tailed possum on my New Zealand studio roof. |
I think these critters are quite rare in Aussie. I wonder if we could ship a whole lot back to them. We've got plenty!
Incidentally, the clouds looked wonderful tonight with the moon behind them...
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Sorry folks. Comments for this particular post are closed due to the volume of annoying visits by roofing companies. But please feel welcome to comment on any other post!
Sunday, 25 November 2012
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