So much water

I arrived at the landing road pretty much on time. Grass growth was phenomenal; warm wet weather is great for bringing on rapid growth. There was a stiff south westerly blowing, giving the day a raw edge. It felt like hunting weather.

As I waited by the river I noticed groups of ducks playing in the breeze, just moving back and forwards aimlessly, then suddenly a group set up uniformly, cupped their wings and dropped. At the crest of the stop bank I had a pretty good view of what they were attracted to - recently flooded paddocks would offer easy food, worms and floating bugs and seeds.

I sat and watched as birds arrived, landed, preened and threw up spray. A couple of hares jogged by as well. I must admit that it was pretty relaxing to kick back.

Soon dad and my uncle, Tom, arrived with the boat. We got loaded up with our gear and 200kg of premix concrete. The concrete was to fill a hole in the dam, the inexorable wear of water had dug a cavity which we'd be filling.

The hole

We went for a tour of the ponds, to survey for spraying and to check the traps. The ponds looked fantastic, clear water, weeds not overly prevalent and a few ducks were in residence, notably pairs of shoveler.

A double dose of trouble for predators

At Park we found the trap tripped.

A ferret had met his end, a good catch. Back at the dam, the dog got excited by the trap there (we'd not checked it on the way in) and found another vermin victim.

This time a stoat, normally difficult to trap he'd got sucked in by the dog roll bait.

Dad and I got cracking digging out the cavity in the dam, then pouring and mixing the concrete while Tom got himself up on the hut roof to repair the leak around the chimney. He was at it for quite a while, during which dad and I installed a new sink at the rear of the hut, checked over the spray equipment and got rid of some rubbish.

Looking good all round, hope we get a good season next year.

... and with so much water everywhere, the ponds look awesome.