Houghton Valley School Sunday 5 July - Nearly did a ton

We had a session in the bush gully next to the Houghton Valley School on Sunday. It proved to be vary successful with 97 birds caught. As expected Silvereyes dominated but we did catch a few birds of other species. There were 65 new birds and 32 recaps.

Busy at the banding station - primitive but effective

Birds caught were -
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 2 (1) the first of this species caught at this site. The recap was banded here at Hornsey Rd in 2013
House Sparrow - 5 (1) again this recap was banded at Hornsey Rd.
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 54 (30) most of the recaps were banded at the sessions over the last couple of weeks but there were some older birds. The oldest was also banded at Hornsey Rd in Aug 2010. There were also 2 from 2011. There were 3 that had been banded at the Houghton Bay stream, 1 on Mt Albert and 2 at Hornsey Rd.

Extracting birds under the watchful eye of interested locals

We were fortunate to be invited to afternoon tea by folk working in the community garden which adjoins the banding area.