Queenstown - the last 3 days

I have managed to get some banding in each day since the last post. The first two were poor but yesterday (Thursday 27th) was a bit more successful. On Tuesday 6 birds were caught, Wednesday a slight improvement at 7 and yesterday 25, not huge but at least an improvement.

The total was 37 birds of 8 species with 13 new and 24 recaptures.
Blackbird - 1 (4)
Song Thrush - 1 (1) the recap was the oldest for the species.
House Sparrow - 5 (10)

Male H Sparrows are looking extremly ha.nsome

Dunnock - 2 (2) one of the recaps is now the oldest of the species caught here.
Chaffinch - 0 (1) this bird is now the oldest of any species caught here. Although it was banded 2 days after the previous record holder, caught on Monday, it was recaptured 3 days later making it older by 1 day.

The recap male Chaffinch, which is at least in its 4th year is probably at its colouful best 

Yellowhammer - 3 (0)

The first Yellowhammer caught was this colourful male

Tui - 0 (4)

Bellbird - ((1)