Wellington Zoo Sat 23 May - a big day

Our session at the Zoo on Saturday proved to be a busy one as we had near perfect conditions with full cloud cover and little wind. Fortunately we had a good team of experienced banders who were ably supported by enthusiastic younger folk. There wasn't a lot of variety in the catch with only 6 species and the total was dominated by 3 of the species. The catch of 172 with 145 new and 27 recaps was surprising as we had started half an hour later than usual and, due to the fact that we were catching mostly recaps already caught during the day, we knocked off an hour or so earlier.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 4 (0)

Kyle showing Finn one of the Blackbirds

Dunnock - 1 (2) the oldest recap was banded Oct 2011
Chaffinch - 2 (0)
Greenfinch - 20 (4) the oldest banded Sept 2012

Ross extracting a Greenfinch with Rory and Maddie in attendance

House Sparrow - 34 (7) all the recaps had been banded in the last 2 years.
Silvereye - 84 (14) the big surprise of the day.  A week ago there appeared to be very few in the area and it seems there has been a big influx in the last few days. This is probably the highest number of SE's we have caught in one day in May, with the highest numbers normally being in June/July. Of the recaps 5 were banded in 2013 and the oldest was banded in Feb 2009.  It was originally banded in the Gully below my house (approx. 2 km) and had been recaptured twice at the Zoo in 2010.

Ros, George and Annette extracting Silvereyes.