Island Bay 15 January

Annette, Anneke, Bernard and I had a successful banding session at Island Bay on Sunday morning, despite a fairly strong wind. In all we caught 100 birds of 8 species with 94 new but only 4 recaptures, the recapture rate was surprising and a bit disappointing but goes to show the large number of birds at this site.

Species caught were – (Recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 26 (3) almost all were Juv’s and only 2 of the 30 caught last month were recaptured and there were still a considerable number unbanded when we left.

Dunnock – 1 (0)

Chaffinch – 12 (0) the most caught at this site ever in one day but had hoped for a recap or two.

Greenfinch – 3 (0)

House Sparrow – 45 (1) Most were young birds but there were about 10 adults. The only recap was banded at a site in Whither St on the other side of the valley which means none of the 1100 Sparrows we have banded at this site in the last 5 years were recaptured. The more I have to do with this species the more I realise they are clever little dickie birds, especially about learning to avoid mist nets.

Silvereyes – 4 (0)

Starling – 4 (0)

Fantail – 1 (0)

All in all a pretty good morning which included the usual great hospitality.