Zoo Stream 28 Jan. - Lots of Juveniles

I went to the little stream over the fence from the Zoo this morning for a couple of hours. There were a lot of birds about, mostly juvenile finches, and I put up 3 nets but had to foil one after about 15 minutes so I could cope with the numbers. In all I caught 50 birds of 7 species with 46 new and 4 recaptures.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 12 (0) almost all juvs
Greenfinch - 8 (1) the recap was banded July 10 it, and 1 other bird, were the only adults - all the rest juvs.
Goldfinch - 15 (0) all were juvs.
Silvereye - 6 (3) the oldest recap was banded July 10, the other 2 in 2011
House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Fantail - 1 (0)

Two Silvereye and two Goldfinch waiting processing

Island Bay Wednesday 23 Jan - Lots of Sparrows

Annette, Ros, Tansy, Nikki and I had a successful mornings banding catching 122 birds with 107 new and 15 recaps. By far the majority were House Sparrows which was good for Tansy's training as they are similar in size and have the same size bands as the Black Robins she is hoping to band back in the Chatham Islands. She was able to band a good number and also practice putting on and removing colour bands.

Tansy practicing with colour bands.

  Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 8 (4) one of the recaps was banded on 8 Dec last year when it had a large head wound. It still has the wound but it is starting to show signs of healing. Hopefully we will catch it again to follow progress.

The wound 8 Dec 2012

The wound 23 Jan 2013

Chaffinch - 2 (0)
Dunnock - 3 (0)
Starling - 4 (0)
Silvereye - 1 (1) a bird banded June 2010
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)
Tui - 0 (1)
House Sparrow - 89 (9) the oldest recap was banded March 2010. Sparrows appear to have had a long and successful breeding with around 75% being juveniles.

Both this morning as well as on Monday we found a considerable number of the birds caught have started to moult, especially juvenile Sparrows but also Starling Silvereye and Blackbird.

Once again we had great hospitality from Marion and Ken including a very enjoyable morning snack.

Houghton Bay 21 January

Annette, Tansy and I had a banding session at the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon with a steady flow of birds. Tansy is a ranger on the Chatham Islands and is getting some additional experience to enable her to band Black Robins etc on the Islands.

In all we caught 54 birds of 8 species with 41 new and 13 recaptures.
Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 0 (0)
Chaffinch - 4 (1) the recap was banded on 27 Jan 08 4 days short of 5 years.
Greenfinch - 16 (1) all except 1 new and the recap were Juvs, Greenfinch appear to have had a good breeding season.
Goldfinch - 2 (0)
House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Fantail - 2 (0)

Tansy putting some 'bling' on a Fantail

Grey Warbler - 2 (0)
Silvereye - 12 (10) the oldest recap was banded Jan 08. In contrast to Greenfinch there appear to be very few juvenile Silvereye.

While away over the last few weeks I didn't do any banding and not a lot of birding but did manage when in Hawkes Bay for a family wedding to see the 3 Plumed Whistling Ducks that have been there for a period. This was the first time I have seen the species in NZ so was rather pleased to find them.

The three Australian visitors