Ros, George and I had a relatively quiet time this morning at our Island Bay site. We caught 37 birds of 4 species with 29 new and 8 recaps. As is usual at this site the catch was dominated by House Sparrows with 21 new and 4 recaps, we also caught 3 Chaffinch + 1 recap, 4 Blackbird + 1 recap and 1 new Dunnock and 2 recaps. Although the conditions were good, with cloud cover and only a light breeze, we had a large number of birds bounce off the nets. I suspect that one of the possible reasons was that the breeze was from the south causing the net pockets to develop on the northern side of the nets which was the direction most birds were coming from.
Two birds, a Blackbird and a Dunnock appeared to be developing a brood patch which hopefully means that spring is just around the corner.
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| Blackbird developing brood patch |
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| Dunnock with developing brood patch |
As is usual at this site we were treated to a scrummy morning tea which was most appreciated.
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