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.