Rachel and I had a good morning's banding in Mark's apple orchard today. It will most likely be the last session there this year as we will both be attending the Birds NZ AGM in Te Anau this weekend and then I head back to Christchurch. As the apples are disappearing fast there probably wouldn't have been much more banding at any rate.
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| Coffee on a rather cold morning? |
We managed to catch 46 birds of 7 species with 37 new and 9 recaps. Silvereye had increased in number and made up the bulk of the catch.
Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Song Thrush - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 5 (0)
Dunnock - 2 (1) the recap was banded in Jan 2016 and is now at 502 days the oldest bird recatured for the species.
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| The old Dunnock |
House Sparrow - 1 (0) as the hens that used to be kept next to the orchard have gone Sparrow numbers have dropped significantly.
Starling - 3 (0)
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The Starlings were aged by the shape of the rump feathers, rounded for 1st year, pointed for older.
This one is a young bird.
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Silvereye - 21 (7) 3 of the recaps had been banded last year.
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| One of the older recaps. |
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| The bird on the right is a 1st year bird, the one on the left is older. |
Bellbird - 3 (1) all were males
All photos by Rachel Hufton, my camera packed a sad.
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