Tuesday 26 January 2016

Queenstown - the last couple of weeks.

I have been doing some banding since the last post. The catch has been dominated by House Sparrows which are still producing large numbers of fledglings. They must be on at least their third brood. Other species appear to be low in numbers or keeping a low profile. I did set a couple of nets up at a neighbour's property, with limited success.  As the site looks to have a lot of potential I will try there again in a few weeks.

In this period I have caught 83 birds of 11 species with 62 new and 21 recaptures. (Recaps in brackets)
Silvereye - 5 (0)
Chaffinch - 5 (0)
Greenfinch - 3 (0)
Redpoll - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 37 (17)
A couple of the male Sparrows had partially chestnut bibs.

A few of the juvenile Sparrow, presumably from the first broods, have started to moult making it possible to sex them.
Blackbird - 3 (3)
Starling - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 5 (0) all juveniles
Yellowhammer - 1 (0)
Tui - 0 (1) have only banded 4 so rather a surprise to recapture one, the only male banded.
Bellbird - 1 (0)
Both the Tui and Bellbird were caught at the neighbours.

Wednesday 13 January 2016

Queenstown - First birds of 2016

I have had 3 short sessions so far this year. It has been a bit slow with too much wind a lower number of birds about. Managed to catch 42 birds of 8 species with 26 new and 16 recaps.
The catch was made up of -
House Sparrow - 9 (10)
Chaffinch - 5 (2)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Redpoll - 3 (1) The recap was only the second I have made.  Not an old bird but 60 days is much longer than 2!
A couple of the Redpolls were juveniles

The Redpoll recap
Blackbird - 2 (2)
Song Thrush - 2 (0)
One of the Song Thrush had started wing moult
Dunnock - 2 (1)
Kingfisher - 2 (0)
Both of the Kingfishers were juveniles

Some of the family amused by my plight

Saturday 9 January 2016

Wellington 2015 Roundup

The Group had a successful year's banding in 2015 at most sites around Wellington and most species numbers were near average. These numbers are for the calendar year 2015. The total number of birds banded for 2015-2016 banding year will be calculated as at 31 March 2016.

Wellington Zoo

At our main banding site at the Zoo we caught a total of 842 new birds and made 245 recaptures. Below are numbers of the birds caught in 2015 and over the last 5 years. This includes the 5 year and 16 year totals and averages. The numbers in blue are the yearly ranking of the various species. 

2015 R/C
Silvereye 304 130
House Sparrow 154 36
Greenfinch 117 35
Goldfinch 87 12
Chaffinch 82 16
Blackbird 41 7
Dunnock 12 7
Tui 12 0
Fantail 11 1
Grey Warbler 7 1
Yellowhammer 7 0
Song Thrush 4 0
Starling 2 0
Kingfisher 1 0
E Rosella 1 0
Yr Total 842 245

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 5yr T 5y Av 16y Av 16y T
Silvereye 139 1 239 1 247 1 100 1 304 1 1029 206 208 3332
House Sparrow 80 3 94 3 77 3 88 3 154 2 493 99 113 1673
Greenfinch 128 2 99 2 80 2 97 2 117 3 521 104 119 1539
Goldfinch 2 11 37 5 42 5 63 4 87 4 231 46 87 262
Chaffinch 46 4 69 4 52 4 39 5 82 5 288 58 45 588
Blackbird 19 6 33 6 7 8 33 6 41 6 133 27 31 426
Tui 10 7 25 7 7 9 17 7 12 7 71 14 10 145
Dunnock 8 8 17 9 10 7 14 9 12 8 61 12 12 230
Fantail 20 5 18 8 12 6 14 8 11 9 75 15 16 172
Grey Warbler 2 12 3 12 5 10 6 10 7 10 23 5 3 44
Yellowhammer 3 10 0 13 3 12 0 14 7 11 13 3 7 408
Song Thrush 1 13 4 11 3 11 3 12 4 12 15 3 3 41
Starling 7 9 11 10 2 13 6 11 2 13 28 10 27 410















465 649 547 481 842 2984 597 586 8871

Birds in order of rankings of new birds caught with recaps in (brackets).
No 1 Silvereye - 304 (130) well up on last year, above both the 5 & 16 year averages.
No 2 House Sparrow - 154 (36) up from 3 last year and above average.
No 3 Greenfinch - 117 (35) about average 
No 4 Goldfinch - 87 (12) 
No 5 Chaffinch - 82 (16)
No 6 Blackbird - 41 (7) above average but recap numbers down.
No 7 Tui - 12 (0) a little down on last few years and surprisingly no recaps although we had a number of recoveries.
No 8 Dunnock - 12 (7) exactly average for both 5 & 16 year.
No 9 Fantail - 11 (1) below average.
No 10 Grey Warbler - 7 (1) slightly above average.
No 11 Yellowhammer - 7 (0)
No 12 Song Thrush - 4 (0)
No 12 Starling - 2 (0) well below average as was the catch at all our other sites. Don't know why as there appeared to be plenty of Starlings around.
We also caught 1 Eastern Rosella.

Island Bay.

The catch rate at our Island Bay site in 2015 at 353 new and 62 recaps was much lower than previous years primarily due to far fewer sessions being held there. It is also very noticeable that it has become a far less diverse site than in previous years, with the almost complete collapse of Greenfinch and Silvereye numbers in particular. This is mostly due to a change of feeding by the owners of the property.
























Island Bay 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 5yr T 5y Av
House Sparrow 405 486 483 635 268 2277 455
Blackbird 45 76 43 42 31 237 47
Chaffinch 25 47 36 23 21 152 30
Dunnock 18 9 20 14 20 81 16
Starling 30 26 8 11 4 79 16
Tui 13 22 10 10 4 59 12
Silvereye 135 27 60 2 3 227 45
Fantail 5 2 2 1 1 11 2
Grey Warbler 1 1 2 1 1 6 1
Cal Quail 1 0 1 0
Greenfinch 48 20 16 0 0 84 17
Yr Total 2876 2160 1480 740 353 3214 643

Houghton Bay

At the Houghton Bay stream we caught 688 new birds and made 78 recaptures. Numbers were slightly below average for most species with Greenfinch the only one significantly above.

Houghton Bay 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 5yr T 5y Av
Silvereye 893 419 295 367 406 2380 476
Greenfinch 27 13 52 55 80 227 45
House Sparrow 57 11 63 72 59 262 52
Chaffinch 92 28 45 41 49 255 51
Goldfinch 16 20 19 47 23 125 25
Grey Warbler 54 24 48 36 21 183 37
Blackbird 32 20 13 36 14 115 23
Fantail 27 15 26 12 14 94 19
Tui 8 13 13 31 13 78 16
Dunnock 12 9 5 6 8 40 8
Song Thrush 0 1 0 3 1 5 1
Starling 1 0 3 6 0 10 2
Kingfisher 0 0 2 0 0 2 0
Yr Total 1219 573 584 712 688 3776 755

Prince of Wales Park.

We had 5 sessions at the Prince of Wales Park banding 158 birds of 7 species with House Sparrows and Goldfinches being the most numerous.

Hornsey Rd.

Bird numbers at the various Hornsey Rd sites were down on most years with Silvereyes, which are the most numerous, being slightly up on last year but only came to feeding tables for a short time. All other species were well down especially Starlings.

There was also some banding done at the Karori Cemetery and at a couple of other sites.

Sunday 3 January 2016

Queenstown - 2015 totals

I haven't done much banding since the last post, just a couple of sessions. Caught mostly House Sparrows which seem to be breeding surprisingly well down here probably because hens are kept by neighbours on both sides of the property and their natural food is supplemented by highly nutritious laying mash. A Blackbird starting to moult was the most significant bird caught. The first in moult caught down here.
The first moulting bird.

Yesterday we all went to the  Glenorchy races which was a fun day with country racing at the extreme. A strong southerly blowing today so no banding so far this year.

The Ladies Gallop race

The total number of birds caught here since commencing banding in September is 520 new birds of 14 species and 186 recaptures. All the recaps are of course recently banded birds.
Silvereye - 128 (43) all the new birds were caught in first couple of weeks in September.
House Sparrow - 174 (29) a lot of juveniles caught in the last few weeks.
Blackbird - 40 (36)
Song Thrush - 22 (10)
Dunnock - 24 (26)
Chaffinch - 59 (29) a good number of birds from Sept have been recaptured.
Goldfinch - 10 (3)
Greenfinch - 5 (0)
Redpoll - 21 (1)
Yellowhammer - 16 (2)
Starling - 14 (6)
Tui - 4 (0)
Bellbird - 1 (0)
Kingfisher - 2 (0)