Queenstown - An update

It has been relatively quiet down here banding wise in the last week or so. I have put nets up on several days with very mixed results. One morning 3 nets managed to only catch 2 bird.  Fortunately other attempts were a bit more successful. The total for the week or so was 34 birds of 9 species with 23 new and 11 recaps.

Blackbird - 1 (2)
Song Thrush - 0 (1)
Chaffinch - 2 (1)
Greenfinch 1 (0)

The Greenfinch was more of a "Yellow" Finch than a Green one.

Goldfinch - 0 (1)
Dunnock - 3 (1)
House Sparrow 12 (4)
Tui - 1 (0)

The Tui was a male aged as a 2

Kingfisher - 1 (0)

The Kingfisher was duller than the other recent bird and was probably a female aged as a 2

I wish you all the best for the festive season and as I am unlikely to be doing much banding for the rest of the year it will most likely be 2016 before the next post from me.

Back in Queenstown - the first few days.

We have packed up and made the move to Queenstown where we will be living for the next 5 months or so. The move went well except I managed to stuff up my back and will be on light duties for the next 6 weeks or so. Over the last few days I have managed to fit in a bit of banding despite the back problem. Bird numbers appear to be down a bit since our November trip, especially Song Thrush, Redpoll and Silvereye.

Have managed to catch 65 birds of 11 species with 41 new and 24 recaps. Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (2)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Starling - 2 (0)

One of the Starlings had an overgrown top bill

Dunnock - 1 (7)
House Sparrow - 26 (10) most were caught in a net set over the fence from the neighbour's hen run.
Chaffinch - 1 (3) the new bird was banded after it flew into a window and stunned itself, appeared to make a complete recovery.
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Goldfinch - 5 (1) all 5 new birds were nestlings from a nest in an apple tree. The recap was one of these birds just after it had fledged.

Silvereye - A nestling Goldfinch with its new bling

Redpoll - 1 (0)

The Redpoll was another bird with an orange poll

Tui - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 0 (1)

Some Recoveries and some Changes

We have recently had three recoveries reported from the Banding Office.

1. A Starling that was banded at the Zoo in July 2010 was controlled (shot) when it kept attempting to build a nest in a supermarket in Kilbirnie.
2. A Silvereye that was banded at our Island Bay site in July 2013 was killed by a cat a short distance away. 
3. A Tui banded at the Zoo in August 2014 was brought into a house in Brooklyn by a  cat (the cat owner doesn't think it would have killed it?) 

None of these birds had been recaptured after they were banded.

Some Changes to the Group

After 25 years in Wellington Ruth and I are moving back to the South Island. This means there will be changes to the Group's structure. Matu has agreed to become the Head Honcho and will be assisted by Annette, Ros, Ross and others. I am sure under their guidance the Group will continue being very active with banding in the Wellington area.

I will be continuing with banding in the Queenstown area  and will be putting summaries of my activities on this blog, hopefully there will be something of interest.