Queenstown - A frosty but busy morning

Rachel came over again this morning for some more banding experience and, she got some. It was a very frosty start with a temperature starting off about -8. We didn't start banding until around 9.30 with the sun starting to get the temperature in postive figures, but not by much.

The double rigged 12 m net with the Remarkables in the background. Photo Rachel Hufton

We caught a total of 71 birds of 7 species with 38 new and 33 recaptures. Birds caught were -
Dunnock - 3 (3)
House Sparrow - 5 (2)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)

The Greenfinch, the first for a while, was a young female.

Chaffinch - 3 (3)
Silvereye - 24 (25) there appears to be heaps about at the moment. We probably caught at least 10 twice making us even busier but all good experiance.
Bellbird - 1 (0)
Tui - 1 (0) when I unexpectedly caught the first Tui here a couple of years ago I thought there was a maximum of 6 birds. How wrong I was, 76 have now been banded and still they come.

Rachel looking a bit anxious as she extracts the Tui. Photo Rachel Hufton

Although the Tui was a young female it could still get a good grasp with its tallons.