Queenstown - a quiet week

We have been down at our son's place near Queenstown for nearly a week, back north Monday. Have endeavoured to do some banding while here but have been mainly unsuccesful due to a lack of birds. Rachel come over from Wanaka for a session on Thursday and Rebecca came from Te Anau today, Sunday. We managed to catch a few birds both days although they were mostly House Sparrows. I also had a couple of sessions down at the stream at the bottom of the property with limited success but at least had some variety.

Rachel giving one of her Sparrows its bling.

The combined totals for the week were 37 new birds and 7 recaps. Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
House Sparrow - 21 (5) included in the recaps was the oldest bird of any species recapturd here.

Most of the Sparrows have nearly completed their moult. This young male is starting to show his true colours.

Chaffinch - 2 (0)
Goldfinch - 4 (0)

Most of the Goldfinch were young birds

Redpoll - 6 (0)
Silvereye - 2 (0)
Song Thrush - 0 (1)
Bellbird - 2 (1) All were caught at the stream and included a female which was good.

I called in at the Moorhill Rd site for a look and found it deserted of birds. A Falcon has been visiting at least daily for several weeks for either a meal of small birds or a free range chicken. When I arrived the Falcon had just been chased away by the owner wielding a broom. There wasn't a bird of any description in sight.