I have discovered a problem with these traps already

Well I wasn’t expecting this, I can tell you! I got up this morning, let Scooby out and came through to the living room with my coffee. That’s when I heard Scooby barking like crazy – not his usual ‘there’s the little dog I’m in love with’ bark, or his ‘whoever you are, get away from my house’ bark. This wasn’t even the ‘I hate you seagull’ bark, which is very distinctive.

No, this bark had a message so I looked out the living room window and saw him peering into the humane trap – which had an occupant. Every time he barked, the occupant jumped. I squinted so I could see what he was looking at: it was sort of rat coloured, but no, it had feathers!

CRAP STICKS, I’VE CAUGHT A BIRD.

So I run out to the garden, calling to Scooby to ‘leave it’ etc and we got Scooby into the house as I wasn’t sure of the condition of the bird – had he been shaking it? Had he rolled the trap over and over? You see my point?

Well, I picked up the trap and started to speak gently to the bird (a thrush I believe). I could see there was a little blood around the top of it’s beak which I did NOT want to see but otherwise it looked ok, if a bit pissed off. So, I put the trap on the ground and opened the door, thinking, if it was injured it would hobble out and we could help. It didn’t hobble.

That thing flew out of there like the proverbial bat out of hell and gave me the biggest F U as it went! Now, I had that trap lined up to the newest rat hole under the shed but in 2 days, no sign of any rats. Just one bird. Does that mean I can declare the garden rat free? I doubt it. We do have another hole leading from a neighbour’s garden and I suspect it’s this one which is used when they come to steal the bird food. I deliberately didn’t put the trap there because it’s too near where the birds feed!

On the plus side, if there is ever a real SHTF situation and going by the ‘food scarcity’ topics I’m seeing on YouTube, that could be any day now (😉), at least I know I can catch food of some sort!!

Win some, lose some I suppose but honestly, the language from that thrush was quite uncalled for!