Q-town Mon 15 Feb - More Redpolls

I put up  2 nets again at the stream this afternoon and soon realised my mistake and had to furl one so that I could cope with the number of birds being caught. In just a couple of hours I caught 53 birds, and with 5 species there was a little bit of variation.

Birds waiting to be processed - all Redpoll except for a Goldfinch at the far end

Greenfinch - 3
Goldfinch -
Silvereye - 1
Tui - 1 a newly fledged male

The newly fledged Tui

The rest were Redpoll with 43 new and a couple of recaps, both the recaps had been banded in the last week.

Most of the Redpolls were juveniles but there were a few older birds including this cracking male.

I am away for the next week so am unlikely to be doing another post for a while.

Queenstown - lots of Redpolls

I have tried several locations in the last week to try and catch a reasonable number of birds. Had only limited success until Friday when I tried next to willow trees at the bottom of the property and found that birds were coming in to drink/bath at the stream there. Surprised to catch mostly Redpolls with only a small number of other species. I put a 12 m net up in the stream for a short time on Saturday morning and again caught mostly Redpoll. Other species appeared to be coming down further upstream where access was difficult. Had a bit of time on Saturday afternoon so put the 12 m net up again and manged to get a 6 m one further up stream. In just over an hour caught 37 birds with 32 of them being Redpoll with the new net catching about 20 birds all RP's except for 2 Greenfinch, so much for my theory of other species using that spot.

Redpolls waiting to be processed.

Caught 107 birds of 8 species for the week  with 97 new and 10 recaps.
Blackbird - 1 (1)
Silvereye - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 7 (0)

One of the Dunnock had a large lump on its lower leg.

Chaffinch - 4 (0)
Goldfinch - 2 (1)
Greenfinch - 5 (0)
Redpoll - 55 (3) The majority were juveniles.

One of the Juv Redpoll had this grotesque growth on its head

House Sparrow - 22 (5) the majority were caught when I had a net up next to the neighbours hen run.

Queenstown - just a few birds

It has been pretty quiet down here banding wise for the last couple of weeks. It is very hot and dry with most species keeping a low profile. The usual House Sparrows are around and there is a small flock of Redpolls feeding on Silver Birch seeds. There are 4 groups of S Birch trees on the property and the birds are usually feeding on trees where I haven't got nets up! As well they are usually feeding too high for my set-up.

Birds caught since the last post  are -
Blackbird - 0 (1)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 2 (1)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Redpoll - 8 (0) almost all juveniles

Four Juvenile Redpoll

Silvereye - 3 (2)