Houghton Bay - Wednesday 20 Feb.

I got back yesterday from a week in Canterbury so no banding but had an enjoyable time and managed to get a bit of birding in.

This afternoon I spent a bit of time at the Houghton Bay stream and caught 46 birds of 8 species with 41 new and 5 recaptures.
Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Chaffinch - 3 (0)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (1) the recap was originally banded in Island Bay in July 10, it has been recaptured twice at the Zoo, in June 11 and May 12. So it gets around a bit.
House Sparrow - 2 (0)
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 31 (2) one of the recaps was banded Oct 11, the other Nov 11.
Fantail - 2 (2) both recaps were banded Nov 12, 1 as an adult the other a juvenile. The juv has gone through its body moult and is almost indistinguishable from an adult. The 2 new birds were recently fledged birds.
Tui - 3 (0) one was a recently fledged juvenile that was blind in one eye.

Didn't do any banding while down south but did some netting, very similar to mist netting but in a different medium and a different end result for those captured.

In many ways netting for flounder is similar to mist netting for birds and these ones tasted good.