Driving down the freeway to my exit that heads out to my trapping area, I have gotten several thumbs up from folks passing me and seeing this trailer tail gate sign.  It makes me giggle.

Today is a make up day for this kid.  I have a feeling of anxiety to catch up with the loss of yesterday.  Re baiting the live traps is a priority, as is pulling the first 10 traps I come to on Bull Run and getting them re-set on the Trellis.  I have to leave as quickly as I can to get it all done.

The weather looks favorable with only a slight chance for rain today, high in the low 30’s.  Not bad for a late February day.

In the trapping shed we are seeing the glands of the male rats beginning to swell and I predict by this time next week we will be seeing most of them swollen and the run beginning.  It seems early to me and it would not break my heart to see the run delay another week….is this another indicator of an early Spring?  Maybe.  After all, Bears Butt did predict a high of 70 on March 6th.

Having two nights where the rats could have gotten into some of my traps and having 21 traps I have set and not checked yet, I expect to see a catch of one raccoon and 20 rats.  There will be at least one damaged beyond salvage and several others with severe bite marks.

More to come later in the day!

Bears Butt

February 20, 2014

P.M. REPORT

Boy was I fooled about the Spring like weather!  It was windy and cold as heck!  I about froze my butt off.

Another surprise was 3 out of the 7 live traps held raccoons!  A great day for bagging them critters!  And they are BIG!

I went through and pulled 12 traps from the Bull Run area and then finished checking the remaining traps.  The end result?

3 Raccoons and 7 rats!  A great start to the days trapping.  I also lost 3 rats to other critters….DANG!

On to the 3 seeps areas I didn’t have a lot of faith in much of a catch there, but just as I always get surprised, those areas kicked out a good number of rats.  I did however lose a trap to something strong enough to pull the stake and everything and take off with it!  I hate when that happens.

11 rats from the seeps!  An excellent day even if I don’t catch another rat!

So, stop number 3 at the Trellis and I have high hopes of re-setting the 12 traps I pulled from Bull Run.  The temperature was really dropping by noon when I got to the Trellis and so I put my rain coat on the toy in case it got colder.   Again I was surprised at the number of rats that I caught out of those few traps.

NINE!

For a total of 27 rats and 3 raccoons!

I did manage to set 14 traps on the trellis and to say my butt is kicked is an understatement.  I arrived back home about 4:30….a long day.

Bob, in the mean time, caught 20 rats!  So totally we caught 47 rats and 3 raccoons!  Does it get much better than that?!  I think not!  Mr. Skinner Man will be up all night skinning tonight!

Bears Butt