Queenstown - Update of the last few days.

On Sunday morning Bex came over and we banded in mild sunny temperatures until the wind strengthened late morning and we had to take the nets down. It was a fairly quiet morning. We caught 23 birds of 5 species with 18 new and 5 recaps. By far the majority were Silvereyes.

Bex at the banding table - Sunday

The same table on Monday - because someone didn't put it away.

I woke on Monday morning to heavy snow. The ground was already covered and it continued to snow until midday. After scattering food on the lawn the nearest thing to banding that I did was look for banded birds out of the window.

This morning dawned calm and sunny although the ground was still covered with the white stuff. I set up nets late morning after the temperature had risen and with birds having had time to get some food. Caught 52 birds of 6 species with 38 new and 14 recaptures.

The combined totals for both sessions was - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 0 (1)
Chaffinch - 2 (0)
Redpoll - 1 (0) the first for a while.
House Sparrow - 14 (1) all except 1 were male.
Silvereye - 31 (12)
Bellbird - 1 (2) included in the recaps was the oldest Bellbird caught here, it was banded April 2016.

The new Bellbird aged as an adult due to its bright eye

Tui - 4 (4)

One of the Tui about to be released.