In the last few days we have two recoveries of birds killed in car accidents. A Tui that was banded at the Prince of Wales Park site in Wellington was seen to fly into a moving car and was killed. It was banded 30 Nov 2014 it was a male and aged as a 3+ so was at least 7 years old. It met its demise only a short distance from its banding site. The second recovery was a House Sparrow I found dead on the road near the entrance to the Halswell Quarry. It hadn't lived long after banding nor moved very far but it is the first recovery of a bird banded at the Quarry.
The recapture relates to a House Sparrow that the group in Wellington recaptured at the Zoo last Saturday. It was banded on 13 April 2013 and although this is not old for many species it seems to be for House Sparrows as we have only recaptured about 8 older than this bird.
The resighting was reported by Rachel who bands with me down near Queenstown. She was doing a braided river survey in the Makarora River which is at the head of Lake Wanaka and amongst the six pair of Wrybill was one with a band. With the aid of a remarkable photo taken by Nick, one of the volunteers, they were able to work out most of the band numbers. When this was reported to the Banding Office it was found that there was only one Wrybill with this part number sequence. The bird had been banded as a juvenile at Miranda and now as a 6year old is found breeding at the opposite end of the country. The direct line distance is just over 900km, but it is most likely to have migrated down the east coast and have stopped off for refueling at somewhere like Lake Ellesmere for a while so the actual distance flown on each trip would be in excess of 1000km. It has probably made this return journey at least 5 times.
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| From Miranda to Makarora |
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| Photo Nick Beckwith |
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| Photo Nick Beckwith |
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