Queenstown - A few birds with a couple of good recaps.

We are back down in Queenstown for a brief visit, arrived Monday afternoon. Put some nets up this morning and managed to catch 15 birds of 5 species with 11 new and 4 recaps. Although this is a rather modest total it is far better than the last time I had nets up at this particular site when I caught none.  I persist with using it as it is nice and handy so I can multi task, combining banding with mowing lawns etc.

Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 2 (2) One of the recaps was banded back in Nov 2015 the other last Nov as a Pulus so good to know that it survived the fledging process.

Last time I saw this bird ir was just getting its primary feathers.

House Sparrow - 1 (1)
Silvereye - 7 (0)
Yellowhammer - 0 (1) a bird banded Nov 2015 and at 493 days from banding is now the oldest YH recaptured

The Yellowhammer was about half way through its moult

We will be here for about a week so weather permitting hope to get a bit more banding in before departing.