Houghton Bay Wed. 14 Jan. - over the ton of birds.

A group of us had an extremely successful session on Wednesday afternoon catching 124 birds. There were 9 species with 100 new and 24 recaptures.

Most of the group during one of the quieter periods

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 3 (0)
Greenfinch - 6 (2)
Chaffinch - 7 (0)
Goldfinch - 5 (2)
House Sparrow - 10 (0)
Silvereye - 61 (20) The oldest recap was banded almost exactly 8 years ago on 21 Jan 2008, which was our second session at this site (the first was on 19 Jan 2008). This bird is now 2550 days from banding - our oldest bird banded and recaptured at this site.

A silvereye tail with several growth bars - the bottom one probably qualifies as a fault bar

Tui - 2 (0) one was a newly fledged male still to grow it's white throat tufts.
Fantail - 5 (0) all were juveniles.

Sarah J looking rather pleased after banding her first Fantail.