Got a call to do a mole job today. It is 45 degrees, no snow. But tomorrow it could be 15 degrees with two foot of snow. She said she will be the first to call in the spring.

We'd try to get traps in the ground today, lol.

Taking advantage of this 50 degree weather. Lots of mole runs and mounds surfacing.

Get them set now, if you can, mole customers appreciate the extra effort, they also understand environmental conditions, we had warm rain out here west that flooded a few of my field set ups prior to chrismast, I will go back in tomorrow to reset

My yard sets were better than I expected in the semi flooded runs, 4 moles for 20 sets, I always hope for a 20 to 30% 1st check, sometimes its more sometimes its less, nobody said it was easy

Bob, got the tool in action, set up a bunch of steves traps yesterday, getting the hang of it, I cant use steves traps on the townsend moles, I managed to hold one by its chin, 3 others pulled out, for now I'm only using them for the small tunnels (pacific moles) which is ok, I have a hard time catching them with victors anyway, I kill the townsends with the victors, the gopher hawks catch both, sometimes the townsend is caught by a paw, and sometimes I miss them, advantage of the gopher hawk, they are a quick set up, disatvantage, they are also $25 a pop, they are lighter than a victor, but heavier than steves traps, for my purposes, those 3 traps are my go to, I have 300 victors, 48 of steves traps and 36 of the gopher hawks, by this time next year, I will have 100 gopher hawks and 200 of steves traps, I do need a wider jaw space for the townsend moles, or sharpen those points, maybe the gopher traps jaws are wider, been so busy, havent asked steve

Noticed some activity in my yard the other day so I figured might as well set .

I have never seen a mole with tails that long before in our part of the state. Looks like a rats tail. Appears to be near half the length of its body. I assume those are hairy tail moles.

Bob here's a picture of the front. The nose is not as pointy as a hairy tailed but I'm not sure . Thinking star nosed ?

Cant see the nose well in that photo but if the nose can spread apart it must be a star nosed mole. I have only caught a few star nosed moles in my days just not many around our work area. The last I caught was up north of Pittsburgh years ago. Our moles don't have a long tail mostly an inch or so long. Eastern or hairy tailed moles are all here.

I catch star nosed moles along streams and high moisture areas in low lying lawns in the past.

11. In winter it’s tale swells up with fat, making it 4 times larger than it’s normal size. Just copied this off a site on star nosed moles . That explains why there tails are so huge .
It serves as a fat storage organ, to help the mole survive the winter months.

Definitely star nosed . Not really up on different types but I'm learning lol.

Rick: Thanks for the post, another fact that I did not know. Also some great pictures.

Yes the tails do swell in the winter and I have caught them muskrat trapping in the winter and inside minnow traps set at beaver log arrangements across streams ie d-ms. Star nosed moles

I was surprised to catch one in a minnow trap.
Didn't know they swam in deep water.