Wellington Zoo Sunday 22 July A busy day for the Few

We had a successful session at the Zoo on Sunday with a total of 103 birds of 9 species caught; there were 75 new and 28 recaptures. As expected there was a very low turnout of banders with the majority of our regulars on Kapiti Is. catching Robins for a transfer.  This resulted in only half the usual number of nets being put up. Even then we had to foil the most productive net (and furthest from the banding station) for a couple of hours in order to keep up with the flow of birds. So we can only guess at what the numbers might have been with all nets up.

We had a group of youngsters who did a good job as couriers. The battery in my camera was flat so this photo is courtesy of Karyne.

The couriers with birds, some of the bags have several birds in.

Species caught were – (recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 1 (1)

Dunnock – 2 (0)

Chaffinch – 1 (0)

Greenfinch – 14 (2) the oldest recap banded June 09 and the other banded at Hornsey Rd.

House Sparrow – 8 (3) the oldest banded July 10.

Starling – 1 (1)

Song Thrush – 0 (1) the bird we caught a couple of months ago and the first recap for a number of years.

Silvereye – (20) no really old birds this month with the oldest banded March 09. Another was banded at Bridie’s in Hornsey Rd 4 days ago, I wonder if it flew over or around Mt Albert?

Tui – 2 (0) surprised we didn’t catch more as there are a lot around the Zoo especially in the red flowered Gums including a colour banded one. This was banded in Houghton Bay Dec 08, seen in Island Bay Jan 09 and later in the Month in Karori. It was then seen at another Island Bay location in Aug 09 but not seen again until it turned up at the Zoo a couple of weeks ago.