Karen Varnham arrived on 14th September to complete the WMIL team. Two Edinburgh Zoo staff arrived on Friday 16th September. There have been between 30 and 80 Longworth live traps set. In addition to two mice caught by WMIL, there have been 5 mice caught to date (total of 7 mice).
Equipment continues to arrive on the island. Any missing items or further requirements are reported to Bob, who sources them and sends them to the island. The quad bike and trailer was delivered on Saturday 17th September. Rat trapping continues. To date 17 rats have been caught (9 females, 8 males). Eight traps (four sets) were moved to the RJ Macleod building site after complaints of rats in the camp. One rat was caught there.
Establishing the bait station grid continues. Over 1700 stations have been put out to date - Tarbert Road and slopes, part of the Plateau, much of the in-bye area, Compass Hill, Tarbert parks, north-western slopes and south-western slopes. All the remaining bait station wire on the island was used by Thursday 16th September. However, half of the long wires needed to put in the stations were delivered to the island on the afternoon of Saturday 17th September.
Weather deteriorated this week and two days were lost to foul weather. However, inside work was completed, including preparing monitoring stations, making crow clips, cutting up fluted plastic for bait station number tags and preparing the pins for the climbing ropes. The WMIL team helped Murdo clean out the old potato crop from Coroghon Barn.
The Islanders have continued to assist with moving bulk bags of bait stations around the island and moving food, equipment and other supplies around for the team. Katherine MacKinnon has assisted with the field work on the weekend.
James Fenton (NTS, Conservation Advisor) and Jill Harden (NTS, Archaeology) were on Canna on Saturday 17th September. They were briefed on the project. Jill provided a copy of the permission letter for placing bait stations near some of the Scheduled Monuments (Special Archaeology Areas) on the island.
Biz Bell, WMIL, Sunday 18 September 2005
return to progress home page
