
June 4th, after four days of trapping in and around my orchard - I ended up with ten coons, two possums, and a skunk. Besides a 50 tree orchard, there are blackberries and muscadines. Fifty yards away is a year round corn feeder. There is a camera at the feeder and one on the “hot” crop in the orchard. Since the trapping, I have got a picture of a coon twice, caught two more possums, and got two more possum pictures.
Point being, predators dont show back up immediately like some folks would have you believe. Took about three hours of “fun” labor and ten dog proof traps I have owned for ten years and caught hundreds of nest predators with them. I have done this in the past and it typically takes about three to four months during spring/summer for predators to come all the way back. They seem slower this year to come back.