Recommendations for a cat trap

Fox/cat traps are something that councils/rangers should provide and service. Hardly a big expense. After all, they send catchers/wagons for roaming dogs.

All the very best, Soakes. May your cat trap work wonders for the local wildlife.

Now there's a couple of ferals that I don't see mentioned much. Deer and blackbirds. I guess they are pests depending on one's location. Blackbirds have never been a big problem to me, except maybe when they scratch up seedlings in the vegie garden. Do they actually displace native birds like indian mynas do? Don't they eat garden pests like snails, slugs,etc? I would be interested to know what people dislike about them (apart from the fact that they are introduced species).

Good advice Alison. We always let the Council Ranger take the cat out and put it into their cage. As we use the Possum Traps they use, they don't have to handle the ferals at all. Back to back, you open the sliding door and shut it after the cat has moved.

Make sure you treat the cat right, one day the Rangerl got a bit upset , because I didn't give the cat water. (the claim was, neglect of duty of care) I told her, how was I supposed to get the water in the cage? The cat would have attacked me.

Night Parrot, Blackbirds take up the ecological space of terrestrial birds. In the Mt Lofty Ranges they've been an important factor in the reducion in Bassian thrush numbers. If you compare Blackbird with Bassian Thrush behaviour you'll see there are similarities.

For me it's not a matter of disliking or hating Blackbirds. It's a matter of valuing more highly the Bassian Thrush & other native birds which are disadvantaged by the Blackbird. Yes, Blackbirds help control garden snails but so do Blue-tongued Lizards. I prefer not to take away food from native lizards to give to feral Blackbirds. It's the same with, say, Mapgies & beetles.

I control Blackbirds by being alert to & alarmed by their nests in spring. At my place Blackbirds, as do a lot of bird species, like to build their nests in the deep interior of shrubs especially Kangaroo Thorn Acacia paradoxa. The nest fibres are bound by mud so the nest is quite robust. I therefore use a long, strong, pronged branch to reach far into the shrub, hook the prong into the side of the nest & then remove the nest. Wearing a long-sleeved shirt & gloves is a good idea to avoid shredding hands & arms.

It's important to persist in any Blackbird eradication because they're good at colonising areas. As far as I can tell they didn't raise any young last spring & I now have numbers at my place down to two. But to stay on top of the species I know that one of my regular spring jobs is to control Blackbirds. To minimise colonisation it would be great if my neighbours did likewise but a lot of folk love the call of Blackbirds in spring or don't appreciate the role Blackbirds play in relation to native bird species. I think their spring call is quite attractive myself but in choosing between a Blackbird call & a rufous whistler, golden whistler or grey shrike-thrush call the last three win claws down.

Thanks for that Woko. I haven't seen a blackbird since I stayed in Melbourne a couple of years back and I like their song (as did The Beatles) but of course I am always conscious of the fact that they are an introduced species. I wasn't aware of their colonisation habits, perhaps because they don't seem anywhere as numerous or widespread as indian mynas. Yes I would also favour the last three birds.

HaHa, you must have a small dog. At least you know it's working. Keep up the good work, it'll happen.

I bought one of those small tins of fish cat food to use as bait when I was trapping a cat that moved into the farm sheds.  I was OK with it while it stayed in the sheds but when it came up to the garden  I got a trap.  I caught it the first night.