The purpose of this morning’s meander was to install new ceramic lures in the tree-mounted possum traps. The bright blue possum dough I had previously been using was I think popular with rats and mice, so after catching a couple of possums in the first weeks of using the bait, the traps were always still set with the bait missing. I’ve also been using the possum dough in the Doc 200’s that sit next to each of the trapinator possum traps and regularly catch rats and an occasional mouse.
One of the fit retirees that help with the trapline on the other side of the stream and with the traps around Te Koo Ootu lake in Cambridge had already added wires to the lures to make them easy to attach to the traps. The strong scent of the lures brings recollections of 20c aniseed wheels that now seem such a weird format for a sweet that awkwardly filled your mouth.
I missed checking the line last week, being away in Taupō for the weekend, and the week prior to that, as a result of cyclone Gabrielle, the stream was too high to access half the trapline. So today the handful of rats in the Doc 200’s were not dessicated but there were not a lot of remains to remove.
Clearly there has been a large volume of water through the gully with dirty water marks well up the trunks of trees and a veneer of silt covering the tradescantia. A couple of the Doc 200’s had been inundated and needed the silt removed. In places the banks of the stream have collapsed and my trail is getting close to the unstable edge.
The blackberry has finished fruiting but is still sending out new growth that needs to be pruned from the path. In other places the path is becoming obscured by the growth of native flaxes and manuka planting. Fortunately Wookiee knows the way.
There is one glade at roughly the middle of the trapline that I always enjoy. In summer it is cool with shade from the deciduous exotic trees. There is a tributary to the stream here that is often stagnant in summer but the excessive rainfall has damaged the storm water outfall. What used to be a deep blue pool has now collapsed into a sandy basin with geotech fabric draped down the flume. Without some kind of maintenance I’m going to have to cut a new path through the blackberry at some point to make it across.
It’s also where I discovered a log with a cluster of the spectacular New Zealand’s Lion’s Mane. The log has now largely dissolved back into the humus and I’ve not seen the fungus since but I keep looking.
Having completed installation of the new lures and checking all the traps, on the way back I hack at the blackberries encroaching on the trail with my machete and clear some convolvulous from the riparian planting. The convolvulous at this point has largely surrendered on the trees I’ve been clearing it from but is still swarming up the flax and willow which I largely ignore.
There is an open area covered with gypsywort that is buzzing with bees. Wookiee gets a little nervous and at 11 years old is clearly aware they’re to be avoided.
After the last trap and at the beginning of the uphill trek to the scout hall where the car is parked there is a small swampy area that is home to some Vietnamese mint. I crush some on my gloves and the smell of it trails me up the hill.
This is Karapiro Gully, an occasional meander through an infested landscape.