Houghton Bay Saturday 17 Oct - More Silvereyes.

We had a session at the Houghton Bay stream this morning and it was in many ways a similar catch to yesterday except no Tui and a lot more Silvereye. There was a very good turn out of people with a  number of experienced banders along with some with lesser experience. We caught 49 birds of 6 species with 40 new and 9 recaptures.

Most of the team - the 3 guys in the back right are busy watching a Fantail avoid a net. It went over, under and around, in fact just about did everything but go in.

Birds caught were -
Greenfinch 6 (1)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 3 (0)
Blackbird - 5 (2) this continued the trend of catching more BB's at stream sites in the AM than PM.

Two male Blackbirds showing differences in breeding condition.

Silvereye - 23 (2) as is typical of this site, a low recapture rate. Not sure where the over 3500 we have banded in the last 7 years have gone.
Grey Warbler - 3 (4) in contrast to Silvereye a very good recapture rate, 2 were banded last year and 1 in 2012 - which for a Grey Warbler is a pretty good age.