Moving the gopher traps

With the cattle now in the middle pasture I immediately removed the gopher and pocket gopher traps from this pasture. The cattle always knock over, and sometimes break, the traps' marking sticks. The thin sticks are not made for rubbing against. I also didn't want to chance the cattle stepping on and breaking the pocket gopher traps or triggering the conibear traps.

Last week I bought a spray can of fluorescent orange paint. My marking sticks are old thin survey-type sticks. Last year I had used the only color I had - black - to mark their upper part. This year with the tall grass and my poor memory I spent too much time looking for the sticks and traps. Even with the orange paint I have to sometimes search for the sticks as they can be obscured by the grass. Come to think of it, I sprayed a little orange paint on the springs of one or both of the missing conibear traps. If you ever see them...

As mentioned in my earlier post about gopher traps, this is when I learned my second conibear trap was gone. What?! I had it anchored by a metal rod in the shape of a cane. *sigh* Only one conibear trap left. I know what I want for my birthday. More conibear traps!

I moved my remaining traps to the north pasture. The gopher "city" has the past few summers extended from their base in the middle pasture to also be a large area in the middle of the north pasture. The "city" has expanded and now has suburbs. I am working on first de-populating their suburbs. I found their "homes" are not single occupancy dwellings. The whole kin live there.

A couple pocket gophers had moved back in since I cleaned them out of the north pasture earlier this spring. Within a day I again cleared this pasture of pocket gophers. (Man, I am getting good at this!)

Since I only had one conibear trap left - and there are many gopher holes in this pasture - this is when I decided to try using the leghold traps. Thankfully they work well. I still prefer the conibear traps as the leghold traps rarely kill the gophers. I can do it - as it is necessary - but I don't like doing it. Last evening between rain showers I had to pull a trap's chain and drag out a gopher who backed down his hole as far as the trap and chain would let him. I had to "dispatch" the gopher taking care it didn't charge me with its three free legs pulling the trap along. The gopher was fairly large and had plenty of energy, and of course, was not happy.

Actually, the size and coloring of the gopher surprised me. I had been trapping smaller darker brown gophers from this hole the previous days. I guess this large lighter brown gopher found a large unused "house" open for occupancy? His mistake.

Another problem with me "dispatching" a gopher is I bent one trap a few days ago. After removing the now dead gopher I had to get two pair of pliers and bend the catch mechanism back into shape. Now I try to be more careful not to damage the trap, but it can be hard when the gopher is doing their best to get away and I am trying to finish him off as quick and painlessly as possible.

I have found that my new anchor rods work. A few days ago I found a trap's chain wound around the trap's anchor rod and only a gopher leg in the trap. I found a fresh bone nearby. Another trap was wound around its anchor rod with nothing but some fur on the trap. The birds couldn't pull the gopher and trap up over the rod and have takeout, and had to dine in.

I think the birds like me. A few days ago I watched as a large bird/hawk/eagle (?) circled low over the hayfield where I had earlier discarded a dead pocket gopher. The bird suddenly dropped the last few feet into the tall grass then flew up and south off the property. I am more convinced my missing traps are elsewhere on other people's land. My far neighbors are probably wondering what the odd metal is and how it got there.

I recently realized my owls are not as prevalent this year. Before the grass took off growing I would see them in the yard's trees or power poles after sunset. But I haven't seen them or heard their screeching for a few weeks now. The owls feed on mice and pocket gophers, and the tall grass must be interfering in seeing them. And I have cleared the yard (short grass) of pocket gophers.

This rainy afternoon I ran across a blog by "farmgirl" writing of her farming experiences and her transition years ago from being a California chick to a Missouri farm girl. Lots of cute cat, dog, sheep and goat photos on her web site. She writes in the typical estrogen blog style of being short, breezy, and cute. And here I write in detail about killing gophers. Must be a "Men are from Mars and Women from Venus" thing? I do like her blog though. Who can resist those cute farm animal photos?!