Ros and I spent a couple of hours at the Houghton Bay Stream today with limited success. In the first hour we caught only 1 bird a Tui which I managed to let go prematurely. We were trying to work out it's sex in order to fit the correct sized band and as it had a couple of broken primaries on the right wing which I usually measure I turned it over to measure the left and next thing it was off. I have learned that I am not very good left handed. We caught a Chaffinch next and then 23 new Silvereyes with no recaptures until the last bird caught which was a banded Grey Warbler. It was banded as an adult on 8 Oct 09 and I think is our third oldest Grey Warbler caught at any site. The catch was a bit lower than I had expected possibly because of recent rain providing other water sources.
I spent the last week or so in Auckland, didn't do a lot of birding partly due to it raining almost every day, but there were a couple of highlights. Saw Pipits on the Desert Rd on both of the journeys, the first I have seen there for several years. The other highlight was a flock of at least 12 NZ Dotterels in a field in Albany near the shopping center. There has been a small number there for several years but this is by far the most I have seen at one time.
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A pair of the Dotterels in the water logged field
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| The Dotterels were with in a few 100m of a very busy shopping center and car park |
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