Zoo Saturday 11 Feb

We had a successful banding day at the Wellington Zoo on Saturday.  We caught 60 birds of 6 species with 51 new and 9 recaptures. Not a very high recapture rate but that is not surprising as most of the new birds were juveniles. After overnight rain the weather was good for banding and there was a very good turn out of banders with an international feel as there were people from the UK, US and Sweden. Erik from Sweden used a few different techniques from us and it was interesting discussing the differences; it is great to exchange ideas.

Hugh discussing some of the finer points

Species caught were – (recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 5 (1)

Dunnock – 3 (0)

Chaffinch – 2 (0)

Greenfinch – 10 (1)

House Sparrow – 5 (0)

Silvereye – 26 (7) The oldest recap was from Feb 08

Erik about to realease his first Silvereye



Juvenile Blackbird about to be released

 Overall numbers compare very well with the 59 we caught in Feb last year but the species vary a lot with a big increase in Silvereyes and a drop in  Tui, Sparrow and Chaffinch numbers