Back in Queenstown

We drove down from Christchurch on Saturday and were probably luck to get here. It started to snow just after going over Burkes Pass and by the time we got to Tekepo it was snowing heavily with a considerably amount accumulating. We decided to continue our journey and got through OK. Apparently the road was closed shortly after we went through Tekapo and stayed closed until the next day.

The snow in Tekapo as we went through.

Have had two banding sessions since arriving here. On Sunday afternoon I put a couple of nets up in an effort to catch some of the flock of Chaffinch that were feeding under some trees. Not very successful with a catch of 9 birds and only 2 Chaffinch but did catch a new Tui which was a bonus.

The Tui, an adult male waiting to be extracted from the net.

He weighed in at a respectable 141.2g

Yesterday, (Monday) Rachel came over from Lake Hawea and joined me. We managed to catch 53 birds with 29 new and 24 recaps. The catch was dominated by Silvereye, especially recaptures, with a few House Sparrows and a sprinkling of others.
Combined totals for the two sessions were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 3 (0)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)

The Goldfinch was a hansome adult male.

House Sparrow - 11 (0) Rather surprised not to recapture any of the 750 birds banded in the last few years.
Silvereye - 17 (26) A considerable number of the recaps were banded in the neighbour's orchard. The oldest recap was banded in Sept 15 about a week after banding started here. at 651 days from banding it is not only the oldest Silvereye but the oldest bird of any species recaptured here.
Bellbird - 1 (1) both were females which is almost unique with males usually dominating.

The new female Bellbird

The recap Female Bellbird.

Tui - 1 (0)