Halswell Quarry Thu. 4 Oct - Fairly quiet

We had a session at the Halswell Quarry yesterday morning and although it was fairly quiet there was a continuous trickle of birds. We ended up catching 31 of 7 species with 22 new and 9 recaps. Phil and I also banded 4 Welcome Swallow nestlings on Wednesday.
Birds caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (1)
Starling - 1 (0)

The Starling, an adult female sporting its new bling.

Dunnock - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 6 (2)
Greenfinch - 9 (2) one of the recaps was the first Greenfinch banded at the Quarry, 1 day short of a year ago and at 364 days is the oldest recaptured bird of any species.
Silvereye - 3 (4) a surprisingly small number.
Welcome Swallow - 5 (0) this includes the nestlings. The new adult was caught at the Visitors Centre where a pair are nesting and we put a net up across the entrance.

Phil putting bling on one of the young Welcome Swallows.

Elenore banding the adult Welcome Swallow