Queenstown - the last week or so

There are not very many birds about the house area at the moment. I have put nets up on a couple of mornings and caught 3 birds the first attempt but a big fat 0 this morning. The main reason for this is that the whole district is laden with bird food, with a huge crop of berries on the Elders, Hawthorn and Rowan bushes, as well as laden fruit trees and other birdie delights.

I have put a net up at the neighbours one afternoon with some success, I think this site has a huge potential for a few months time with a small apple orchard that Mark (the owner) is only going to pick lightly and leave the rest for the birds.

The net set at Mark's, on the right is a hen run with very tall berry laden elder bushes and on the left is the apple orchard.

I have also had a couple of sessions at the stream at the bottom of the property catching, as usual, mostly young Redpolls.

Birds caught during this period were -
Blackbird - 1
Song Thrush - 1 the first for a while.
Chaffinch - 1 (1) the recap was banded on the first banding day down here so is now the oldest bird recaptured.
Goldfinch - 1
Redpoll - 35

I caught another pale coloured Redpoll that was heavy and had long wings.

Starling - 1
House Sparrow - 1 (6) interestingly 3 of the recaps were banded on the first day I caught any down here.
Dunnock - 1