Queenstown - some more birds

I have had a couple of sessions since the last post, one at the stream and one near the house. On Friday afternoon I put nets up at the stream where the catch rate was very slow with few birds about. Caught 11 new birds, 10 Redpoll and a Dunnock. All were young birds and the only one of any significance was a Redpoll with a big lump on one leg. Dispite this lump it appeared otherwise healthy and was and at 12.8g above average weight.

"The Lump" not sure of the cause.

Yesterday (Sunday) I had 3 net set up here near the house and although the catch rate was slow ended up with 30 birds, 17 new and 13 recaps. With 8 species at least there was a bit of variety although in several cases there was just one individual.

House Sparrows dominated the catch with 7 new and 11 recaps. The oldest recap was banded on the second day of banding here so it is now the oldest bird of any species recaptured here.
Other species were - (recaps in brackets)
Greenfinch - 4 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Goldfinch - 0 (1) first recap for a while.

The Goldfinch recap, an adult female in moult.

Dunnock - 1 (0)
Yellowhammer - 1 (0) A very young bird that caused me a bit of confusion untill I had it out of the net and a chance to examine it closely.

The Brown Yellowhammer, an unexpected catch.

Redpoll - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 2 (1)