Houghton Bay Sunday 17 August - heaps of Silvereye

We had a very successful banding session at the Houghton Bay stream this morning. I was joined by Sarah J, Kyle with Finn and Kyle's parents who are over from Canada for a visit.

Three generations, father Kyle, his father Ken and Grandson Finn (somewhere under the blue hat)

We caught a total of 81 birds of 8 species with 71 new and 10 recaptures.

Birds caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 3 (0)
Song Thrush - 1 (0) only the 4th caught at this site.
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Greenfinch 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 2 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (1)
Fantail - 1 (0)
Silvereye 61 (9) I think this is the biggest Silvereye total caught at any site this year. Of the recaps 1 was banded at the Zoo, 1 on Mt Albert and 2 here at Hornsey Rd.

One of the Silvereye had a very noticeable growth bar across its tail and also had a very poorly defined eye ring.

Hope to have another session tomorrow afternoon to compare birds AM v PM.