Halswell Quarry - Thu 26 April

We had a good session on Thursday morning at the Halswell Quarry. Caught 26 birds of 7 species, all new except 1. There was a steady flow of birds for most of the morning which was ideal to give the trainees time with each bird. As well as the regular participants we had the company of Andrew's young son who was a keen and enthusiastic assistant.

Birds caught were -
Blackbird - 1

Xavier about to release the Blackbird

And its OFF

Chaffinch - 1 with 1 recap, a bird banded at the last session.
Greenfinch - 3
House Sparrow - 7
Silvereye - 11 we also a couple of recaps but one had just been banded and the other was reluctant to go into a bag and made a premature escape.
Grey Warbler - 1
Fantail - 1

The Fantail had a bad infestation of mite. Possibly due to having been in a 2nd or 3rd brood fledging from the same nest with a subsequent build up of the little beasties. 

Halswell Quarry Thu 12 April - A good morning

A group of trainees and a scribe joined me in a session at the Halswell Quarry on Thursday morning. We had a reasonably successful session catching 24 birds of 6 species with 21 new and 3 recaps.

Most of the team. Sandra our scribe, Eleanor, Ron and Kenny. Andrew was late due to (so he claimed) by work commitments.

House Sparrow - 12, Greenfinch, Dunnock, Grey Warbler & Song Thrush 1 each and Silvereye 5 with 3 recaptures. One of the recaps was banded on our first day at this site so is now our oldest but still just under 200 days.

Eleanor with her first Song Thrush, also received a nice deposit.

Christchurch Halswell Quarry - Thursday

On Thursday morning we had a session at the Halswell Quarry with moderate success. We caught 17 birds of 6 species, all were new and most species were represented by only 1 bird.
Greenfinch 10, (the most caught there in a session) Chaffinch 3 and 1 each of Blackbird, Dunnock, House Sparrow and Silvereye.

Eleanor banding the Silvereye under the watchful eye of our scribe.

We were also joined for a period by a group of school pupils who were given a talk on bird banding and on Ranger work by Andrew and Kenny.

Andrew talking to the school group