Zoo Sunday 13 July - another quiet day

There was a smaller turnout of banders at the Zoo on Sunday, just Rachel, Dave, Ross and I. Conditions were reasonable with low cloud, a moderate northerly and short periods of light drizzle but fortunately never heavy enough to disrupt proceedings. I suspect that the precipitation was heavier on the other side of town causing a number of people deciding to stay home and keep dry.

Bird numbers were way down on the usual July numbers with a total catch of 44 birds of 9 species with 23 new birds and 21 recaps. At our July session last year 121 birds were caught. The highlight of the day was catching 4 Silvereyes that were over 5 years from when they were banded.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (1)
Dunnock - 0(1)
Chaffinch - 2 (1) the recap was banded as a Juv in May 2011.

The Chaffinch recap.

Greenfinch - 0 (1) in July last year we caught 35 Greenfinch.
House Sparrow - 2 (1)
Starling - 1 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)
Fantail - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 14 (16) July last year we caught 85. Four of the recaps were at least 5 years from when they were banded.
A-174899 banded May 2009 = 1891 days, last caught Nov 2011
A-178147 banded Jan 2008 = 2361 days, last caught June 2014
A-168410 banded June 2007 = 2612 days, last caught Sept 2012
A-153781 banded May 2006 = 2976 days, last caught May 2013. This bird is now I think the 2nd oldest Silvereye we have recaptured at the Zoo.

The old bird still looking in good order

The band is still very readable after 8 years of wear and tear.

It is now 14 years since we started our banding program at the Zoo with our first session held on 8 July 2000. in that time we have banded 8245 birds and made 2799 recaptures. Our oldest bird was a Blackbird banded 1 Dec 2001 and found dead 7 Dec 2012, 4024 days later. Our oldest recap is a Silvereye banded 6 Dec 2003 and recaptured 24 June 2012 3267 days later. Our oldest sighting of a colour banded bird is of a Tui banded 4 Sept 2004, re-sighted last Wednesday 9 July 3595 days after banding.