Spent a couple of hours at the Houghton Bay stream yesterday (Friday). I didn't expect to catch much after heavy overnight rain but still caught 13 birds.
House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (1)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 4 (1) the recap was banded in 08 so a reasonably old bird.
Tui - 2 (0)
I have also done a bit of banding both here and down the road at Bridie's with not a lot of birds.
Blackbird - 2 (4) the recaps included the old bird "White Eye" who was caught for the 19th time and at 3064 days is the oldest live Blackbird recapture at any site, but has a while to go to beat a couple of recoveries.
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 5 (2)
Tui - 1 (0)
Called in at the Zoo a couple of days ago and spoke with Nathan who was the keeper who found the dead Blackbird mentioned in the last post. He confirmed that it had only been dead for 2-3 days. It apparently has been around the Giraffe enclosure for some time and was very confiding and well known to the keepers working there. It was last seen about 4 days prior to the body being found and the comment was made that he wasn't looking very well. As it was banded as a Juvenile this makes it just over 11 years old at the time of its demise and at 4021 days our oldest bird recaptured or recovered of any species, surpassing the Silvereye that had held the record since Nov 2007 when it was recaptured after 3817 days having been banded in May 1997.
This is the last post for 2012 and I wish you all the best for the new year. The past year has been a good one for old birds with a new oldest bird overall as well as for Blackbird, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Starling and Tui. I am away for the next few weeks so there is unlikely to be any new postings till towards the end of January.
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