Houghton Valley School Thu 7 June

Annette, Gen and I had an interesting afternoon at the Houghton Valley School with a class of youngsters. We were joined after school by Kate a senior pupil who is a keen birder and is becoming very competent at handling birds.

The first bird about to be released

 In all we caught 31 birds, with as expected the majority being Silvereyes there were 19 new and 10 recaptures with 2 Grey Warblers (probably a pair) the only other species. All the recaps were banded last year, 8 at the school in July and 2 at the Houghton Bay stream in April. The high recapture ratio might mean that there has been a high survival of adults but a low recruitment of juveniles.

The second one about to take off

Going, going

Gone

Even the teachers got in on the action

Another one about to be released

And another

Gen showing one of the Grey Warblers to keen youngsters

Kate checking the weight of a Silvereye