Houghton Bay 26 March - Escape from the Jury

I am doing Jury service this week but this morning's court case was cancelled so I was given the afternoon off. So instead of sitting in a court room I spent a couple of hours at the Houghton Bay stream. There was a steady flow of birds into the nets and I ended up with a tally of 40 of 8 species with 36 new and 4 recaptures.

Species caught were -
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Goldfinch - 3 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 23 (3) the oldest recap was banded in March 2011

One of the Silvereyes had a very prominent growth bar across its tail

House Sparrow - 2 (0)
Grey Warbler - 3 (1)
Fantail - 1 (0)
Tui - 2 (0)

Bridie's 25 March

I was also released from Jury service early yesterday so set the trap down the road at Bridie's for an hour or so in the afternoon. Caught 12 birds, all House Sparrows with 7 new and 5 recaps, the oldest recap was also banded in March 2011.

One bird had a very long top mandible but must be managing all right as it has almost finished its moult and had an above average weight of 32.5g.

The long billed Sparrow