Karori Cemetery & An old bird

Love (pronounced more like Luva) who is a bander ( or ringer) from Sweden and I spent a couple of hours at the Karori Cemetery this morning. Didn't catch many birds but did have some variety with 4 birds all of different species. We haven't attempted to band there at this time of year before but thought we would try mainly to catch Bellbird that appear to be increasing in number this area. We were unsuccessful with Bellbird but did catch 1 recap Tui banded April 2011, 1 recap Blackbird (Coal Thrush in translated Swedish) banded March 2011 and 1 new House Sparrow (Grey Sparrow) plus a new Kingfisher. The Sparrow was the first bird Love has banded in NZ and the Kingfisher was not only a new species but a new genus for him as he hasn't banded any species of Kingfisher before.

Love banding his first bird banded in NZ, a European House Sparrow.

And with his first Kingfisher

Although we didn't catch many birds, I enjoyed the time spent as we had a chance to talk about birds and banding, hopefully Love also found the morning worthwhile.

A Very Old Bird.

Ralph who was a very active member of our group until he moved across the Strait a few years ago reports the sighting of one of his colour banded North Island Robin a couple of days ago. The bird which he has named Gavin appears to be the last survivor of a number of Robins he banded during a study in Pureora Forest during the 1990's. Gavin was banded in March 1997 and would now be aged as an 18, he is almost certainly the oldest known NZ Robin.  It is about 6125 days since he was banded. The oldest bird that the group has banded here in Wellington is a Silvereye recaptured a mere 3817 days from banding, 2308 less than Gavin.