Halswell Quarry Thursday 4 April - Sparrows & Greenfinch

We had a session at the Quarry on Thursday morning catching 25 birds but with the catch dominated by two species there wasn't much variety. The day started out very promising with calm conditions and a good number of birds however the eastly kicked in and it became blustery and cold. With the wind increasing bird numbers dropped.

All birds were new except a Chaffinch recap, this was the first bird caught and at 483 days from banding is the oldest caught of any species, exceeding the next oldest by over 100 days.The rest of the catch consisted of 12 House Sparrows and 11 Greenfinch plus a lone Silvereye which was the last bird caught.
The Silvereye was interesting as its moult was not following the usual sequence and the two wings doing their own thing. Here is a couple of not very clear photos.

Right wing with P9 half grown, P8 & 7 full grown and P6 still growing.

Left wing with  P9,8,7 all half grown with the rest finished.