Houghton Bay 14 Nov - A mixed bag

We had a banding session at the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon. I was assisted by Sarah and Chye-Mei from the Zoo who were attempting to get some more experience. Unfortunately due to my giving not very clear directions they were a bit late in arriving, but still managed to handle some birds.

We caught 34 birds of 7 species with 23 new and 11 recaptures. Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Chaffinch - 2 (1)
House Sparrow - 6 (0)

Chye-Mei taking the wing cord of one of the Sparrows

Silvereye - 10 (9) the oldest bird was banded Nov 2010

Sarah looking rather pleased with "her" Silvereye

Starling - 1 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (0) Heard a Shining Cuckoo (They parasitise GW nests) calling near the banding site. First one seen or heard over the 5+ years and 100's of hours spent at that site.
Fantail - 1 (0)
Tui - 2 (1) one of the new birds was  newly fledged our first for the year, the recap was banded last March as a Juv, now a well developed Male.

The recap left me with a bad case of "Tui finger"

  

Both the older Tui and many of the Silvereye are obviously feeding on the abundant Flax flowers