Gophers

Earlier this week I finally got out and reset my pocket gopher traps. Since I have been away and not trapping them I had to start all over again at the northern fence boundary in the hayfield.

I found quite a number of fresh dirt mounds in the NW corner. This is the area where the gophers move in during the Summer after I trap out the pocket gophers. Since I trapped out the gophers this Summer the pocket gophers now moved back in.

*sigh*

The traps sat for a few days as I had no ambition to check them in the rain. Thursday I checked them and found I had trapped one in the very NW corner. A big fat pocket gopher. I found a few other traps had dirt stuffed in them so I cleaned the dirt out and replaced the traps.

That makes 109 pocket gophers for the year. I need 6 more to exceed 2004's total of 114. Otherwise I've always trapped over 200 a year. (I am not counting my first year as I started trapping them in August and only had one or two traps).